Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday urged those who consider cabinet meetings as illegitimate to go ahead and elect a president.

Mikati's statement came after a meeting with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, during which they discussed the Taif Agreement, the presidential file and Mikati's visit to the Vatican.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday rejected that a president be “imposed” on the Lebanese as well as “vetoes” on presidential candidates.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is preparing to visit Riyadh in the coming period, should circumstances allow him to carry out such a visit, highly informed sources have said.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said Friday that “Lebanon needs Lebanese rapprochement, not Iranian-Saudi rapprochement,” a few hours after Tehran and Riyadh announced a reconciliation agreement.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday called for dialogue over Lebanon’s presidential crisis and said an Iranian-Saudi reconciliation announced earlier in the day “can only help” in the file but that no candidates can be “imposed.”

“We welcome any foreign assistance but we do not accept dictations,” Nasrallah said in a televised address.

Higher Islamic Shiite Council deputy chief Sheikh Ali al-Khatib congratulated Friday Iran and Saudi Arabia over their agreement to resume ties after seven years of tensions, and hoped the reconciliation would reflect positively on Lebanon.

Iran and Saudi Arabia earlier on Friday agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies. The major diplomatic breakthrough negotiated with China lowers the chance of armed conflict between the nations — both directly and in proxy conflicts around the region.

Independent MP Charbel Masaad on Friday stormed a bank in the southern city of Sidon to demand that a depositor be paid his money in cash, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The lawmaker, who is still inside the bank, held “banks, the banking system and the central bank governor responsible for people’s suicide,” NNA added.

As Suleiman Franjieh prepares to hold a press conference to announce his presidential platform and his vision for the controversial files in the country, a “credible figure” told the Nidaa al-Watan daily that Riyad is categorically opposed to Franjieh’s nomination.

“The decisive Saudi rejection closes the door firmly in the face of any possibility for his election as president,” the source added.

L'Orient-Le Jour has managed to obtain a non-final list of potential consensual candidates whose names have been discussed between the Christian leaders and Maronite Arbishop of Antelias Antoine Bou Najem.

Here is the list of the candidates who have either announced they were running for president or emerged as potential candidates.

The “rift is increasing” among the Christian forces that are opposed to Suleiman Franjieh’s election as president and “their disagreement on the alternative allows the advocates of the ‘third choice’ to work separately from these forces’ agenda,” a media report said.

“It also allows foreign forces to have the upper hand and this is what the contacts of the past hours have showed,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Friday.