Speaker Nabih Berri has said that he will “immediately” call for a presidential election session once Jihad Azour’s nomination becomes “serious.”

Lebanon's ambassador to France, Rami Adwan, has been investigated for rape and intentional violence following complaints by two former embassy employees, informed sources said, confirming an earlier media report.

A Hezbollah official said Friday there was "no justification" for linking the group to an Irish peacekeeper's killing, a day after a judicial official accused five militants of last year's attack.

Private Sean Rooney, 23, was killed and three others were injured on December 14 when their U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) vehicle was attacked near the southern coastal village of al-Aqbiyeh.

Presidential candidate Jihad Azour held separate Zoom meetings overnight with a number of Change MPs, media reports said.

“The MPs asked him about his stance on the October 17 uprising and how he would deal with the sovereign issues, Hezbollah’s arms, the judicial files, the probe in the Beirut port blast case, the recovery plan and other matters,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Friday.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has mockingly said that "he can't sleep at night", as he downplayed U.S. sanction threats.

"They think they can intimidate me," Berri told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Friday.

Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh could garner 45 votes, while former minister Jihad Azour could garner 68, if Speaker Nabih Berri calls for a session, LBCI said in a detailed report.

According to the record, 31 MPs from the Shiite Duo blocs would vote for Franjieh, in addition to some Sunni and Alawite MPs, four MPs from Franjieh's bloc and 1 MP from the FPM-allied Tashnag.

The British Ambassador to Lebanon, Hamish Cowell, has inaugurated the newly rebuilt Fish Market in Sidon.

An agreement among Lebanon’s Christians over a presidential candidate would be an “important” step, but “it is not enough for the election of a president,” French President Emmanuel Macron has reportedly told Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

“Things in the country require consensus with the political forces,” Macron added, according to al-Akhbar newspaper.

The opposition and the Free Patriotic Movement MPs will likely announce their presidential candidate, former minister Jihad Azour, on Saturday, al-Joumhouria newspaper said.

Informed sources told the daily, in remarks published Friday, that Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi after hailing the agreement would ask Speaker Nabih Berri and Hezbollah to call for a session and to secure quorum.

A military judge has accused five Hezbollah members, only one of whom is in custody, of killing an Irish United Nations peacekeeper in December last year, a judicial official told AFP Thursday.

Private Sean Rooney, 23, was killed and three others were injured on December 14 when their U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) vehicle was attacked near the southern coastal village of al-Aqbiyeh.