Four former directors of a major Shiite Muslim center in France have been arrested on suspicion of continuing to run the association despite its dissolution over alleged support for armed jihad, a judicial source said Wednesday.

The Zahra Center in northern France was founded in 2009 by Yahia Gouasmi, a religious figure who has spoken in support of Iran-backed Lebanese armed group Hizbullah.

Prime Minister-designate Mustafa Adib was the one who called President Michel Aoun and asked for 24 more hours to try and find solutions for the obstacles delaying the formation of the new government, al-Jadeed TV reported Wednesday afternoon.

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim has meanwhile launched mediation efforts at Aoun’s request and will communicate with Hizbullah, the AMAL Movement and France in a bid to resolve the finance portfolio obstacle, al-Jadeed quoted unnamed sources as saying.

Prime Minister-designate Mustafa Adib will not visit Baabda on Wednesday and has postponed the appointment to Thursday to allow for further political contacts over the new government, al-Jadeed TV has reported.

LBCI television meanwhile said that French official Bernard Émié -- who is the head of the Directorate-General for External Security and an ex-ambassador to Lebanon -- has carried out a series of contacts aimed at resolving the impasse.

It was a night Dr. Bassam Osman says changed his life. At around 6 p.m. on Aug. 4, the 27-year-old surgical resident was about to leave his daily hospital shift. Then a massive explosion shook Beirut.

The floodgates opened and hundreds of wounded poured into the American University of Beirut Medical Center, one of Lebanon's best hospitals.

The huge explosion at Beirut's port last month laid bare a dockside institution riddled with graft which critics say is a microcosm of a corrupt Lebanese state.

Prime Minister-designate Mustafa Adib might step down from the mission of forming a new government should the deadlock linked to the finance ministerial portfolio continue, media reports said on Tuesday.

President Michel Aoun on Tuesday called for “understanding” instead of “intransigence,” in a tweet marking the International Day of Democracy.

“On the International Day of Democracy, let us all remember that resolving problems can only happen through understanding and not through intransigence and stubbornness, or else everyone will reap great failure and loss,” the president said.

Beirut Bar Association chief Melhem Khalaf called on a judge investigating an explosion at the Lebanese capital's port to also inquire into a "worrying" port blaze that could have compromised evidence.

Beirut has only "days" left to preserve damaged heritage buildings before the rain finishes off the destruction caused by the August 4 port blast, Lebanon's antiquities chief warned Tuesday.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday vowed that Washington would seek to prevent Iran from purchasing Chinese and Russian weapons that might be passed on to Hizbullah.

"We are going to act in a way -– and we have acted in a way –- that will prevent Iran from being able to purchase Chinese tanks and Russian air defense systems and resell weapons to Hizbullah to undermine the very efforts that (French) President (Emmanuel) Macron is ably trying to lead in Lebanon," Pompeo said.