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.

Caretaker ministers Hector Hajjar and Issam Sharafeddine on Wednesday filed an appeal before the State Shoura Council against two decrees related to the Costa Brava landfill, al-Jadeed TV said.

Speaking to al-Jadeed on Tuesday, the media adviser of caretaker PM Najib Mikati, Fares Gemayel, stressed that “the decrees are constitutional and cannot be appealed.”

The White House has nominated U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea for the posts of U.S. Deputy Representative to the U.N. and U.S. Representative to the Sessions of the U.N. General Assembly, sending the nominations to the U.S. Senate for approval.

According to Lebanon’s MTV, a successor to Shea as U.S. ambassador to Lebanon is yet to be appointed.

The latest visit by a Hezbollah delegation to Bkirki was “very cordial and excellent” and the only political file that was tackled was the presidential crisis, informed sources said.

Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi was “direct in expressing concern over the failure to finalize this juncture, wondering why parliament wouldn’t convene in a single session, similarly to the pope’s election, in which dialogue would be held until an agreement over a president is reached,” the sources added, in remarks to al-Akhbar newspaper published Wednesday.

The so-called change parliamentary bloc is trying to break the status quo created by MP Michel Mouawad’s nomination through promoting the candidacy of ex-MP Salah Honein, whom they see as “a sovereign, reformist and unprovocative candidate who did not get involved in corruption,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Change MPs believe that Honein “can unify the opposition’s votes around him, contrary to Mouawad,” the daily added.