Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Wednesday decried that “what is happening in the issue of the formation of the government is a real farce,” as he said that thwarting the French initiative for Lebanon would be a “crime.”

“We are again hearing theories that had led to the country’s ruin in the first place,” Geagea tweeted.

Judicial Investigator Judge Fadi Sawwan on Wednesday heard the testimony of former public works and transport Minister Ghazi Zoaiter as part of the ongoing probe into the catastrophic Aug. 4 blast at Beirut port.

According to the National News Agency, Zoaiter appeared before Sawwan as a "witness."

Lebanese politicians have missed a 15-day deadline to form a crisis Cabinet, with many remaining deadlocked on Wednesday on which political faction gets to have the key portfolio of the finance ministry.

The deadline was set as part of a French initiative by President Emmanuel Macron who has been pressing the leaders in Lebanon to form a Cabinet made up of specialists who can work on enacting urgent reforms to extract the country from a devastating economic and financial crisis.

France regrets that Lebanese political leaders “have not been able to honor their pledges to French Presidency Emmanuel Macron” regarding the formation of a new government, the French Presidency said on Wednesday.

“It's not too late for forming a government in Lebanon and working for Lebanon’s interest,” the Presidency added in a statement.

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.