The Constitutional Council on Thursday announced the annulment of some articles of the state budget and the “clarification” of other articles based on appeals filed by the Change parliamentary bloc and other parties.

“Our decisions are binding and the Constitutional Council is an independent authority that is not linked to anyone,” Council chief Judge Tannous Meshleb said at a press conference.

Lebanon has charged seven people for participating in an attack against United Nations peacekeepers that killed one Irish soldier in mid-December, a judicial official told AFP on 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 village of al-Aqbiyeh in the south of the country, a stronghold of the powerful Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Paris attempts to help Lebanon elect a president are ongoing, diplomatic sources in Paris said, adding that they see no breakthrough on the horizon.

The sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Thursday, that there are no signs of a breakthrough in the presidential file in light of the existing divergence between the politicians.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib promoted himself as a potential presidential candidate during his latest visit to Washington, telling several officials whom he met that there is a possibility to secure domestic consensus over his name should his candidacy receive U.S. support, a media report said on Thursday.

Bou Habib argued that “he was a former ambassador to the United States and enjoys Western and Arab relations that allow for boosting his presidential chances,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported.

Washington and Paris have agreed on the “characteristics” that Lebanon’s next president should enjoy, which include being totally uninvolved in corruption, a media report said on Thursday.

The two capitals have also agreed that the new president “should have a sober-minded behavior and should be independent and distant from regional political axes,” al-Joumhouria newspaper reported.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is expected to launch a presidential initiative when the conditions are ripe, a source said.

The source told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Thursday, that Berri will launch his initiative, only when the domestic ground is fertile and ready for it.

Free Patriotic Movement sources have welcomed Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s latest remarks about the relation with the FPM.

“The same as Sayyed Nasrallah said that he does not want to withdraw his hand from the Memorandum of Understanding, the FPM also does not want to withdraw its hand, and the current flaw requires steps, initiatives and a discussion,” a senior FPM source told al-Akhbar newspaper in remarks published Thursday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat accused Thursday the main political leaders of disrupting ministerial meetings by using "flimsy constitutional arguments."

In a tweet, Jumblat said that political leaders are obstructing any ministerial meeting that would facilitate people's affairs.

The electricity crisis will aggravate over the next two weeks, after production plants ran out of fuel oil, which means that “there will be no ability to generate a single minute of power supply,” a media report said.

The dispute over funds needed to benefit from three fuel ships docked off the coast meanwhile continues, with ministerial sources telling al-Akhbar newspaper that caretaker PM Najib Mikati has not agreed to authorize a treasury loan with an extraordinary approval under the excuse that there are “legal” complications.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Wednesday accused MP and ex-energy minister Nada Bustani of “curtailing facts in an attempt to disavow her direct interference in the work of the executive authority,” after she accused him of backpedaling on the approval of funds needed to purchase fuel for the national electricity company.

In a statement issued by his press office, Mikati accused Bustani of failing to mention that his previous approval had stipulated the issuance of a cabinet decree and the presence of an official clarification from Electricite du Liban explaining how it intends to return the treasury loan.