Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri will not call for a president election session unless there are serious candidates competing for presidency, MTV said Wednesday.

The media outlet added that Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat have affirmed that MP and presidential candidate Michel Mouawad has no chances of becoming president.

Lebanon shifted Wednesday its long-standing official exchange rate to 15,000 pounds against the dollar, a central bank source said -- an almost 90 percent devaluation amid a years-long economic crisis.

The Lebanese pound has been officially pegged at 1,507 to the greenback since 1997, but its market value began to slide in late 2019 and hit record lows of more than 60,000 this month.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has tried to reach a presidential consensus with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

"We're trying to cross some barriers in order to reach a consensus that would give us hope that a president will be elected," Jumblat said after meeting Berri in Ain el-Tineh.

Braving the bitter cold, Lebanese villagers have been patrolling a mountainside in the country's north, trying to protect trees from loggers who roll in under the cover of darkness. 

Near his village of Ainata, "nearly 150 centuries-old oak trees have been felled" in the past year, said Ghandi Rahme, pointing at the tree stumps in the rocky ground around him.

UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Aroldo Lázaro chaired a regular Tripartite meeting at a U.N. position in Ras al-Naqoura on Tuesday.

“Through 2023 we must prioritize maintaining the cessation of hostilities,” he said. “In all our actions we should seek to de-escalate and reduce tensions along the Blue Line.”

The Higher Judicial Council is facing a “real test” and its chief, Judge Suheil Abboud, is “still refusing that a session be held to discuss the latest developments, with the aim of protecting (Beirut port blast investigator Judge Tarek) Bitar,” judicial sources say.

“During deliberations yesterday with the members of the council, Abboud tried to put Bitar in the same position with (State Prosecutor Ghassan) Oueidat, arguing that both have erred and that Oueidat cannot attend the session,” the sources told al-Akhbar newspaper in remarks published Tuesday.

Army Commander General Joseph Aoun has advised Beirut port blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar to “stay home and not go to the Justice Palace – neither in Beirut nor in Jdeideh -- out of concern that he might get arrested by the State Security agency under the excuse of bringing him to interrogation before the state prosecutor,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Tuesday.

“The French have also talked to Bitar on this issue and stressed to him that France is his second country, that his family can travel whenever it wants and that everything such as residence, education and other issues will be provided to them,” the daily added.

Democratic Gathering Bloc chief MP Taymour Jumblat met Tuesday with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkerki.

He was accompanied by a delegation from the bloc.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil's announcement that he might nominate himself for presidency had "a very negative resonance" for Hezbollah, informed sources said.

The sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Tuesday, that Hezbollah circles were dismayed at Bassil's words.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Tuesday that he will call for a cabinet session over the educational file, this week or early next week.

"The education minister will deliver proposals regarding the educational file and the public sector teachers strike," Mikati said, adding that he will call for cabinet to convene by early next week at the latest.