France, supported by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, is coming close to announcing its support for Army chief Joseph Aoun as a presidential candidate, al-Akhbar newspaper reported Friday.

It said that a high-level French official might visit Beirut soon as France is preparing for new talks led by Ambassador Anne Grillo, after it failed to agree with Washington and Riyadh on a solution initiative.

Former minister and Tripoli MP Faisal Karami has said that his hand is extended to all parties, except for the Lebanese Forces.

A close ally of Hezbollah and Syrian President Bashar Assad, Karami had regained on Thursday his seat in parliament from dentist and pro-democracy activist Rami Fanj, following an appeal claiming the initial vote count in Fanj's favor was inaccurate.

Lina Ghotmeh has pegged her career on sustainable construction.

The French-Lebanese architect wants to see her industry transformed by drastically reducing the use of concrete -- a major CO2 contributor -- using more local materials and reusing existing buildings and materials.

People in Lebanon, among them Palestine refugees, are “suffering and paying the price for something not of their making,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said during a visit to the country.

“I met with Palestine refugees during my visit who are completely ravished by poverty, despair and lack of prospect. The humanitarian situation of Palestine refugees in Lebanon is extremely alarming. People are dying a slow death as many are unable to afford medicines or co-share the cost of treatment especially for chronic diseases and cancer. Levels of poverty and unemployment are unprecedented due to one of the worst economic crises in recent history. The spread of cholera is the latest tragic layer that adds to acute hardship and helplessness,” Lazzarini added.

Saudi Arabia has informed its allies in Lebanon that it supports the election as president of Army Commander General Joseph Aoun, because he is “firm in his stances, centrist, unbiased and capable of talking to all political parties in Lebanon,” an Arab diplomat has said in a closed-door meeting.

“He is the most suitable candidate in the current period,” ad-Diyar newspaper quoted the Arab diplomat as saying.

The French drive regarding the Lebanese presidential file has hit again a dead end, al-Akhbar newspaper said Thursday, as foreign sources indicated a long period of presidential vacuum.

The daily reported that the French are trying to imply a progress by inaccurately interpreting the Saudi position, but that Saudi Arabia is standing its ground regarding the file.

"This is not an electoral process, it's a process of waiting for compromise that is to the detriment of the country, the people, the economy and the constitution," said MP and Kataeb party chief Sami Gemayel.

Gemayel decried the results of a seventh parliamentary session that failed again Thursday to elect a successor to former president Michel Aoun, even though the vacancy is hampering efforts to rescue the stricken economy.

During his latest visit to Paris, Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil tried to convince the French with endorsing a number of presidential candidates, a media report said on Thursday.

“He raised the names with them seeking ‘a bargain and an exchange of services,’ an approach that the French side did not welcome,” highly informed sources told the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper.

The Constitutional Council on Thursday annulled the parliamentary membership of Rami Fanj (Tripoli, Sunni) and Firas al-Salloum, declaring the win of Faisal Karami (Tripoli, Sunni) and Haidar Nasser (Tripoli, Alawite).

Karami is an ally of Hezbollah and the March 8 camp while Fanj was a member of the 13-MP Change bloc. Nasser meanwhile was a member of Fanj’s electoral list.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced Thursday that exiting the country’s multifaceted crisis should be through “a general solution and a general settlement.”

He added that such a settlement “should before anything else entail the election of a president as soon as possible, the formation of a new government, speeding up the cycle of the aspired reforms and reaching a final agreement with the International Monetary Fund.”