A meeting Monday between caretaker PM Najib Mikati and the Central Bank’s four vice governors was “not encouraging,” media report said on Tuesday.

“The offer presented by Mikati to them was not tempting: he asked them not to tender their resignations in the next 48 hours while promising to find a way to cover expenditure from the foreign currency reserves, as they had requested in the plan presented to the Administration and Justice Committee,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Tuesday that his party is fighting a battle, along with its allies, "to win back the country from its hijackers."

"If the Axis of Defiance manages to take control of the presidency, this would lead to a continued deterioration of the economic and financial situations and would aggravate the suffering of the Lebanese," Geagea added.

The caretaker Cabinet convened Monday at the Grand Serail to discuss the much delayed 2023 state budget.

The Council of Ministers’ General-Secretariat received the budget draft law from the Finance Ministry last week, and cabinet will hold successive sessions to discuss and approve it.

French Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian will arrive Tuesday in Lebanon on a two-day visit to meet with Lebanese officials and leaders, including Maronite Patriarch Beshara al Rahi and Speaker Nabih Berri, media reports said.

Le Drian will start his tour in Lebanon with a visit to Berri during which the two will discuss the national dialogue over the presidential file, al-Akhbar newspaper reported Monday.

Hezbollah central council member Sheikh Nabil Qaouq on Monday stressed that his party is “keen on consensus, because Hezbollah’s priority is halting the collapse and deterioration and saving the country.”

“But the other camp’s priority is employing the collapse and exploiting it for political objectives,” he added.

Russia is communicating with former Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat regarding the presidential file and it has informed several Arab capitals of its support for Suleiman Franjieh’s election as president, a media report said.

“Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov raised the issue in a previous meeting with his Saudi counterpart Faisal bin Farhan, asking him to relay a direct message in this regard from President Vladimir Putin to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,” al-Akhbar newspaper quoted sources as saying.

Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement are holding dialogue without preconditions regarding the two parties’ presidential candidates, a media report said.

“Hezbollah is listening to the FPM’s opinion on the presidential file in light of the results of the June 14 session,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported.

A technical extension of Central Bank chief Riad Salameh’s term, his reappointment to the post or tasking him with acting in caretaker capacity “are all impossible ideas that no one can tolerate,” Speaker Nabih Berri has reportedly said.

As for Salameh’s four vice governors, Berri said that the best move would be their “resignation and their acting in caretaker capacity until the appointment of a new governor and new vice governors at a later stage,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday.

Caretaker PM Najib Mikati met Monday at the Grand Serail with Central Bank vice governors Wassim Mansouri, Bashir Yakzan, Salim Chahine and Alexander Mouradian.

The meeting was also attended by caretaker Deputy PM Saade Chami and caretaker Finance Minister Youssef Khalil.

French presidential envoy for Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian will arrive in Beirut on Tuesday and will amend the roadmap he had launched on his first visit, an informed source said.