Lebanon has been rocked since October 2019 by angry protests over government corruption and economic hardship. 

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri held talks Thursday afternoon at the Center House with former premiers Najib Miqati, Fouad Saniora and Tammam Salam and discussions tackled the latest political developments, Hariri's office said.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Thursday that his government will go ahead and seek financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund based on an economic and financial reform plan approved earlier in the day.

In an address to the nation, Diab described the plan adopted unanimously by the Cabinet as a comprehensive "roadmap" for dealing with the country's spiraling financial crisis, the worst since the 1975-90 civil war.

Prime Minister Hassab Diab on Thursday voiced skepticism over Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh's latest remarks about the lira exchange rate.

Head of the Budget and Finance Parliamentary Committee, MP Ibrahim Kanaan said a long-awaited Illicit Enrichment Law has been approved by the committee on Thursday.

The Lebanese government on Thursday approved a long-awaited plan to rescue the debt-saddled economy from its worst crisis in decades, following a fresh wave of angry streets protests.

President Michel Aoun on Thursday considered the government’s endorsement of its financial and monetary plan as a “historic” move for Lebanon, as the country grapples with an unprecedented economic crisis since October 2019.

“Today is a historic day for Lebanon, because for the first time it endorses an economic-financial plan, after lack of planning and the lack of prospects for the future that almost brought the country to ruin,” said Aoun at the beginning of a Cabinet meeting at Baabda Palace.

Israel on Thursday applauded Germany's decision to ban all activities of Hizbullah as "a significant step in the global fight against terrorism."

In the wake of protests and riots triggered by an economic crisis in Lebanon, the security and military bodies warned against attempts to “sabotage” civil peace or pit the people against the army vowing to foil such "schemes", al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday.

The German government on Thursday said it was banning all activities of Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbullah movement in Germany, calling it a "Shiite terrorist organisation".