Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh is so close to securing the 65 votes needed for his election as president, minister Ziad Makari said.

Makari added that what Franjieh cares about is to be elected with a national consensus.

Iran prefers to speed up its discussions with Saudi Arabia, especially regarding the Lebanese file, media reports said.

French judge Aude Buresi has postponed a session to announce the verdict in a case against Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh to May 23.

“The French judge was supposed to issue a verdict upholding the freezing order on Salameh’s properties and confiscated assets or acquitting him, in a lawsuit filed by the Gathering of the Victims of Fraudulent and Criminal Practices in Lebanon and French NGO Sherpa,” al-Akhbar newspaper said.

A Qatari envoy visiting Lebanon said on the sidelines of one his meetings on Tuesday that his country “still believes that Army Commander General Joseph Aoun is the most suitable candidate for the presidency” and that “Christians should unite behind him to prevent others from choosing the president,” a highly informed source said.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has sent a list with the names of 15 presidential candidates to Hezbollah, Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat, a media report said on Wednesday.

A “day of prayer and contemplation” that Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi had called for, started Wednesday at Beit Anya in Harissa.

Fifty-three Christian MPs attended the spiritual meeting, that aims at unifying and connecting the Christian blocs amid a severe presidential crisis.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday sanctioned two Lebanese brothers who are accused of selling "dangerously compromised fuel" to Lebanon's state utility company.

The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control blocked Raymond Zina Rahme and Teddy Zina Rahme from accessing U.S. bank accounts and the larger U.S. financial system. The brothers allegedly used their role as government subcontractors to import tainted fuel that caused "significant harm to Lebanese power plants."

A French judicial delegation will return in Lebanon on April 24, media reports said.

The report said that the delegation has asked Judge Charbel Abu Samra to question on its behalf Riad Salameh's brother, Raja, and his associate Marianne Hoayek on April 25.

Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh held a meeting overnight with Hezbollah officials, LBCI television reported.

A Qatari envoy visiting Lebanon, Mohammed bin Abdel Aziz al-Khulaifi, has not excluded the name of Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh from the list of presidential candidates in his meetings with Lebanese officials, political sources told al-Akhbar newspaper in remarks published Tuesday.