The “Aounist camp” wants to postpone the parliamentary elections for three and not two months so that the vote would be held in September, highly informed sources said.

The aim is to “prevent the presence of a caretaker cabinet for a four-month period, which would be a long time should there be failure to form a government in the period between the election of the new parliament and the date of the presidential elections, seeing as President (Michel) Aoun’s term ends on October 31,” the sources told al-Liwaa newspaper in remarks published Tuesday.

Tourism Minister Walid Nassar, who is close to the Free Patriotic Movement, has denied calling for the postponement of parliamentary polls in Monday’s ministerial meeting that tackled the issue of voting megacenters, noting that his remarks were taken out of context.

“With all due independence, I’m in favor of megacenters and I don’t have political calculations. My political leadership is President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Najib Miqati,” Nassar said in a TV interview.

President Michel Aoun on Monday stressed that “the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections will take place.”

He voiced his remarks during a meeting in Baabda with a delegation from the European Peoples Party.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat said that the Axis of Defiance wants to "besiege" him.

"It's ok," he added, telling Nidaa al-Watan newspaper, in remarks published Monday, that Hizbullah wants to impose itself on the entire country and on all sects.

A few days after resigning from al-Mustaqbal Movement, ex-MP Mustafa Alloush has confirmed that he will engage in the upcoming parliamentary elections to “fill the void in the Sunni arena” following ex-PM Saad Hariri’s withdrawal from politics.

“We have not finalized the alliances yet and things are supposed to crystallize in the next two days. The candidates whom we will ally with are either independent or close to al-Mustaqbal Movement,” Alloush said in an interview with al-Akhbar newspaper.

At least two activists were beaten up Monday, one of them severely, after they chanted “Beirut Free, Iran Out!” at a section displaying pictures of slain Iranian general Qassem Soleimani at the Beirut International and Arab Book Fair at the Seaside Arena (previously known as BIEL).

MTV identified two of the activists as Shafik Bader and Nelly Qandil. It added that Bader’s cellphone was taken away by the attackers.

- Bakeries Closing Doors -

Several bakeries closed Monday as mills only delivered flour to Arabic bread bakeries, according to the mills agent in the South, Ali Rammal.

If the Russian war on Ukraine is prolonged, Lebanon could face wheat shortages starting July.

That could create food insecurity and throw more people into poverty in Lebanon, where diets are dominated by government-subsidized bread.

A top member of the gas station owners syndicate of Lebanon, George al-Brax, has reassured that there is no gasoline shortage in the market, asking consumers not to panic, as long queues returned to fuel stations over the past hours.

“The fuel quantities that are reaching Lebanon have become smaller than before, but what we’re receiving is sufficient to meet domestic need,” Brax said in a TV interview.

Speaker Nabih Berri and Hizbullah have distanced themselves from a panel formed by President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Najib Miqati with the aim of studying the written proposal that has been sent to Lebanon by U.S. sea border demarcation envoy Amos Hochstein, media reports said on Saturday.