Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi announced Wednesday that Lebanon is ready to hold the elections, as doors have closed for parliament candidacy with 1043 candidates.

He asked the civil and international communities to monitor the elections and make sure they are transparent.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea announced Tuesday that she had a “positive discussion” with Energy Minister Walid Fayyad, while denying claims by Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah about the fate of Lebanon's U.S.-sponsored energy deals with each of Egypt and Jordan.

“I am encouraged when I hear about the continued progress on these regional energy deals. It is a long and complicated process, and I would urge the audiences out there to not believe the naysayers who would have you believe that there is no progress,” Shea said after the talks, apparently responding to Nasrallah’s remarks.

Ex-PM Fouad Saniora on Tuesday officially announced that he will not nominate himself for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

At a press conference, Saniora added that his decision is aimed at “making way for competent and new faces,” while noting that he will be “fully involved” in the elections in terms of backing certain electoral lists.

The negotiations with the International Monetary Fund have not stopped and "things are going well," Deputy Prime Minister Saadeh Shami's office said.

Shami's office negated, in a statement Tuesday, media reports that said the negotiations had stopped and that no results have been reached.

A Lebanese committee studying a proposal put forward by U.S. energy envoy Amos Hochstein held its second meeting yesterday in Baabda, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Hochstein had recently submitted to Lebanon a new proposal for the demarcation of its sea border with Israel. According to the newspaper, Hochstein’s suggestion includes modifications to the maritime border that would give Lebanon less than the 860 square kilometers that Line 23 would secure.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on Tuesday lamented that the Arab countries have “abandoned” Lebanon due to “the absurd statements of top leaders against the Gulf countries.”

“Amid this suffocating social and economic crisis that Lebanon is going through, today we are bearing the price of the Arab countries’ abandonment of us,” Jumblat tweeted.

A high-level Saudi delegation has visited the Élysée Palace to strengthen the strategic partnership in the Lebanese affairs, al-Jadeed TV said.

The channel said Tuesday that in late February, French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian had talked with his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan about the situation in Lebanon.

Former prime minister Saad Hariri on Tuesday denied a media report claiming that he has sent an admonishing message to Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan over his “siding with” ex-PM Fouad Saniora in his endeavor to “inherit the House of Hariri and al-Mustaqbal Movement.”

“In line with its habit of fabricating news, al-Akhbar newspaper today published a report that is full of lies about what it called ‘an admonishing message from Hariri to the Grand Mufti,’” Hariri’s press office said in a statement.

Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun has frozen the assets of five of Lebanon's largest banks and those of their board of directors as she investigates possible transfers of billions of dollars aboard during the country's economic meltdown.

The state-run National News Agency said the decision covers real estate, vehicles and shares that the five banks or their directors own in other companies.

Today, Tuesday, doors will close for candidacy for the parliament elections on May 15.

A low turnout is expected in the Sunni community, as former prime minister Saad Hariri's political exit created a vacuum and a need for a new mantle.