Prime Minister Najib Miqati and ex-PMs Fouad Saniora and Tammam Salam have held a meeting to discuss “the developing political situation in light of ex-PM Saad Hariri’s decision to refrain from running in the elections,” a source from the so-called club of ex-PMs said.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday warned against passing, in the 2022 state budget, new financial decisions similar to the new wage scale.

"We warn against trying to pass financial decisions that are more like a new veiled version of the new wage scale," al-Rahi ssaid.

Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Ahmed Nasser al-Mohammed Al-Sabah met Sunday morning with President Michel Aoun in Baabda, hours after he arrived in Beirut and met with Prime Minister Najib Miqati.

After the meeting, the Kuwaiti minister said he is "carrying a Kuwaiti, Gulf, Arab and international message containing measures and ideas to build confidence again with Lebanon."

Ex-PM Saad Hariri has told al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc and al-Mustaqbal Movement’s political bureau that he has decided not to take part in the upcoming parliamentary elections -- neither in person nor as a political movement, media reports said on Saturday.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Friday designated “Hizbullah-affiliated financial facilitator Adnan Ayad,” as well as “members of an international network of facilitators and companies connected to him and to Adel Diab, Adnan Ayad’s business partner and fellow Hizbullah financier who was designated by OFAC on January 18, 2022,” it said in a statement.

“The sanctions evasion efforts of those designated today demonstrate how Hizbullah gains access to the international financial system and raises funds in support of its acts of terrorism and other illicit activities. These actions undermine the stability, security, and sovereignty of the Lebanese people,” the Treasury added.

Crisis-hit Lebanon will sign a deal with Jordan next week to bring in electricity via Syria to help ease grueling power cuts, Energy Minister Walid Fayyad has told AFP.

President Michel Aoun on Friday hoped the new year will witness “the beginning of Lebanon’s rise from the successive crises it has gone through.”

President Michel Aoun’s remarks in his meeting with the diplomatic corps regarding alleged foreign support for some civil society groups have irritated U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea, a media report said on Friday.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati has expressed his keenness on refraining from any move that may be perceived as a “provocation” by the Shiite Duo, sources close to Hizbullah and Amal Movement said.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri will start today a series of internal meetings with al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc and the movement's political bureau, al-Joumhouria newspaper said.

The newspaper said Friday it has learned that Hariri will hold these meetings to make a final decision regarding the elections.