Lebanon has been plunged into darkness while hospitals and bakeries have sounded the alarm in connection with the growing diesel shortage crisis.

As Lebanon’s biggest serums factory announced that it has stopped its manufacturing operations due to lack of diesel and some hospitals said that they will soon stop operating, the association of flour mill owners issued a statement saying that several mills have closed due to the same reason.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati has stressed that he will not form a government that resembles the previous governments.

“I know that the mission is very difficult and that my designation has become the only hope, and I have made this step in order to form a government and not something else, but I will not form a government that is similar to the previous ones,” Miqati told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Wednesday.

MP Mario Aoun of the Free Patriotic Movement announced Wednesday that “there will be no government in the near future.”

“The opposition camp is trying to waste time and it only wants this presidential tenure to come to an end, but what’s happening is a crime against Lebanon and its people,” Aoun said in an interview with Radio Voice of All Lebanon.

Lebanese have lined up in long queues to stock up on cooking gas following warnings of imminent shortages, as an economic crisis eats away at supplies of basic imports.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Tuesday hit out at Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah over his latest remarks on the port blast case.

“Some of the accused who have bad intentions are promoting the idea that those who caused the port blast were Muslims and that those affected were Christians and this is not true. Those promoting these remarks are seeking to protect themselves,” Geagea said at a press conference.

President Michel Aoun called the Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi Tuesday to condemn the political and social media campaign against him, stressing that insults against the patriarchal seat are rejected.

Aoun emphasized during the call that "freedom of opinion and expression is protected under the constitution” and condemned “defamation and abuse.”

U.S. President Joseph Biden has announced nearly $100 million in new humanitarian assistance for Lebanon.

“This assistance from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. Department of State will help people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and its compounding socioeconomic impacts on the Lebanese people. The funding will also support Syrian refugees sheltering in Lebanon,” a U.S. statement said.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati’s press office has refuted “fabricated news” published by “some media outlets” about “alleged meetings and side negotiations” between Miqati and the head of the Free Patriotic Movement Jebran Bassil.

Miqati’s press office confirmed in a statement on Tuesday that “no meeting has taken place” between Miqati and “any mediator of the President,” concerning the new government formation.

More than half of Lebanon's migrant workers are in need of "urgent humanitarian assistance" to survive an economic crisis that has plunged most of the population into poverty, the U.N. warned Tuesday.

The country of six million is in the throes of a financial downturn branded by the World Bank as one of the worst since the mid-19th century, with the local currency losing more than 90 percent of its black market value.

The government formation process is “not deadlocked” although “the waves of pessimism seem to be high,” a media report published Tuesday said.

“The optimistic expectations are based on PM-designate Najib Miqati’s patience and his deep understanding of the threats that may arise if he resigns,” the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper reported.