French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to name a special envoy for Lebanon “reflects the French leader’s positive response to the urgent demands by the Vatican, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and several Lebanese forces as to changing the nature of the French team tasked with Lebanon’s presidential file,” a prominent Lebanese opposition leader said.

The decision “practically stands for ending the services of presidential adviser Patrick Durel, who is considered to be the godfather of the settlement calling for electing (Suleiman) Franjieh as president in return for naming Nawaf Salam as premier,” the leader added, in remarks to al-Akhbar newspaper.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said he does not rule out that the 12th presidential election session might be “worse” than the previous sessions through blocking the first round’s quorum or boycotting the session altogether.

“The circumstances are appropriate, there is no need for boycott and we’re before two candidates with clear characteristics who enjoy the needed conditions and the support of some blocs. That’s why it is necessary to head to open-ended electoral sessions until the aspired result is reached,” Geagea said in an interview.

France has no presidential candidate for Lebanon, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told her Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib Thursday in a meeting in Riyadh.

"All what France cares about is for a president to be elected," Colonna told Bou Habib.

French President Emmanuel Macron has named his former foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian as his personal envoy for Lebanon, in a new bid to end the country's political crisis, the presidency said.

Le Drian will be charged with helping to find a "consensual and efficient" solution to the crisis, said a presidential official, asking not to be named.

Ex-president Michel Aoun has lashed out at some newspapers, especially Annahar and Nidaa al-Watan, accusing them of publishing “lies” about his meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday.

In a statement, Aoun’s press office said the former president “did not request a mediation or support for the position of the Free Patriotic Movement leader.”

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that his political camp will vote for Suleiman Franjieh in the upcoming presidential election session.

“We will vote for Suleiman Franjieh. We will all vote for him – we and our allies. None of us has said that he will cast a blank vote. We cast blank votes before our nomination of Franjieh and had they accepted the dialogue that I had called for twice we would not have reached the current phase,” Berri said in an interview published in al-Akhbar newspaper.

After Speaker Nabih Berri called for a presidential election session, Hezbollah and the Amal Movement launched coordinative meetings to study the steps and choices that can be taken in the face of the rival camp’s plan, a media report said.

“These meetings will expand to include the Marada Movement, seeing as tripartite meetings will be held between Hezbollah Secretary-General’s Political Aide Hussein al-Khalil, MP Ali Hassan Khalil and ex-minister Youssef Fenianos, in order to discuss the expected scenarios and the steps that can be taken,” al-Akhbar newspaper said.

As part of the preparations for the June 14 presidential election session, “secret contacts” have been held between Christian leaders and Democratic Gathering chief MP Taymour Jumblat to discuss the issue of supporting the candidate Jihad Azour, ad-Diyar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Media reports have said that the Democratic Gathering might resort to blank ballots or might split its votes between Azour and Suleiman Franjieh so that outgoing Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat does not dismay his longtime ally and friend Speaker Nabih Berri.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told ex-president Michel Aoun in their meeting in Damascus on Tuesday that “he is not interfering in the presidential file” and that he will “remain neutral and won’t discuss this file with anyone,” sources close to the Free Patriotic Movement told al-Joumhouria newspaper.

Sources close to the March 8 camp also told the daily that Assad told Aoun that he will not interfere in the presidential file without voicing any other stance.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has threatened to bomb Hezbollah and Lebanon "into the stone age," if the Lebanese, Iran-backed group "makes a mistake" and "starts a war against Israel."

During a visit to the Israeli army’s northern command, he said: “I hear our enemies boasting about weapons they are developing. For any such development, we have an even better response -- by air, by sea and on land and through other means of attack and defense."