President Michel Aoun on Monday reiterated his support for the French initiative that was launched by President Emmanuel Macron in the wake of the catastrophic Beirut port explosion.

Lebanon was on Monday holding binding parliamentary consultations to designate a new premier who will make the third attempt within a year to form a government amid deepening political and economic turmoil.

President Michel Aoun was holding the consultations with the parliamentary blocs in order to find a replacement for Saad Hariri, who quit as PM-designate on July 15 after nine months of political horse-trading failed to produce a new cabinet.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi announced Sunday that he hopes that the binding parliamentary consultations to name a PM-designate will be held as scheduled on Monday.

The nomination of Nawwaf Salam for the PM post by the Free Patriotic Movement is “not a maneuver nor an attempt to spar with Hizbullah nor is aimed at appeasing the Americans,” a prominent FPM source has said.

President Michel Aoun is keen on holding the binding parliamentary consultations as scheduled on Monday, “even if no consensus is reached on a candidate for the PM-designate post,” sources informed on Aoun’s stances said.

Iraq will provide Lebanon with one million tons of fuel oil for its power plants in exchange for medical services, under a deal signed on Saturday in Baghdad.

Ex-PM Najib Miqati will become PM-designate should the binding parliamentary consultations be held on Monday as scheduled, a source informed on the negotiations said.

Lebanon's deepening economic crisis has piled pressure on hospitals, leaving them ill-equipped to face any new wave of the coronavirus, a top hospital director has warned.

The head of the Lebanese Forces party Samir Geagea announced after a meeting held by the Strong Republic bloc on Friday that the LF “will not nominate anyone” in the binding parliamentary consultations scheduled for Monday.

Geagea said that it is impossible to reach any reforms “as long as the duo Aoun-Hizbullah and their allies are holding power.”

The relatives of the Beirut port blast victims on Friday staged a sit-in outside the Justice Palace in Beirut under the slogan “The Blood of Out Martyrs is Above Your Immunities”, in which they lashed out at several officials and threatened a major escalation in their protests.