Nineteen Lebanese officials, including Speaker Nabih Berri, might be sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department if a president is not elected this month, Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported Thursday.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf had reportedly warned Wednesday that her country might impose sanctions on Lebanese officials if they continue to obstruct the election of a new president.

Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday stressed that he will not call for a presidential election session in the absence of “at least two serious nominations.”

“Parliament’s doors have not and will not be shut in the face of a presidential election session should at least two serious presidential nominations be announced,” Berri said in a statement, emphasizing that “distortions and threats” against him are “of no use.”

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Thursday announced that France and the Vatican have asked him to talk to all of the country’s “components” regarding the presidential file.

“We will talk to everyone without exception, even to Hezbollah, and the efforts will start today,” al-Rahi told a delegation from the Press Syndicate.

Relatives of the Beirut port blast victims rallied Thursday in front of the Justice Palace to demand justice for their loved ones.

They said they will rally every Thursday, as they burned tires to protest the obstruction of the blast's probe.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil failed to prove that he has the upper hand in the FPM in yesterday’s meeting of the Strong Lebanon bloc, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Wednesday.

“He accompanied his father-in-law, ex-president Michel Aoun, to the meeting of the Strong Lebanon bloc in order to impose his plan which is based on agreeing with the rest of the parties on nominating ex-minister Jihad Azour, but a statement issued by the bloc after a relatively lengthy meeting came out empty of a public and outright nomination of Azour,” the daily said.

Attorney General Judge Imad Qabalan on Wednesday heard the testimony of Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh over the German arrest warrant that has been issued for him on charges of falsification and money laundering.

At the end of the session, Qabalan decided to release Salameh pending further investigations and to ban him from travel while keeping his two passports confiscated.

MP Salim Aoun of the Free Patriotic Movement has said that the FPM has not officially endorsed Jihad Azour for the presidency in order to “secure the appropriate circumstances for his success.”

“He should not presented as a confrontation candidate,” Aoun added, in an interview with Radio All of Lebanon.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has confirmed that an agreement has been reached between the opposition and the Free Patriotic Movement on Jihad Azour’s presidential nomination, noting that “the negotiations are moving forward.”

“He is a consensual, neutral candidate and not a confrontation candidate against Hezbollah,” Geagea added, in an interview with al-Akhbar newspaper.

The Free Patriotic Movement-led Strong Lebanon bloc has “extensively” discussed the “proposed choices” regarding the presidential vote, in a meeting held in the presence of ex-president Michel Aoun, a statement said.

The conferees backed “the bloc chief’s efforts regarding agreeing with the opposition on a presidential candidate whose name will be declared after specifying the choices and completing the consultations as to the program and the election mechanism,” the statement added.

French President Emmanuel Macron has stressed his support for the “efforts” that Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi is exerting to pull Lebanon out of the “political crisis,” calling on all forces in the country to elect a president “without delay.”

In a statement issued after a Paris meeting between Macron and al-Rahi, the French presidency said the two men “expressed their deep concerns over the crisis” in Lebanon and “the institutional paralysis that has been aggravated by the vacancy in the presidency since more than seven months.”