Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Wednesday that a caretaker Cabinet session will be held early next week to approve an electricity loan regardless of who may attend or boycott it.

“There is no possibility to grant a loan to Electricite du Liban except through a Cabinet decree and there can be no actions that contradict with the public accounting law,” Mikati told Annahar newspaper in an interview.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday postponed a presidential election session scheduled for Thursday over the death earlier in the day of former parliament speaker Hussein al-Husseini.

Mourning Husseini, his predecessor, Berri described him as “one of Lebanon’s major figures” who “dedicated his life to defending the country and its people, territorial integrity and national and pan-national identity.”

The General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday sent ministers a memo informing them of the draft agenda of Cabinet’s upcoming session ahead of setting a date for it, state-run National News Agency said.

The move comes “based on a request from the (caretaker) prime minister and in line with articles 62 and 64 of the constitution,” the General Secretariat said.

Caretaker Justice Minister Henri Khoury on Wednesday noted that “any international judicial cooperation that takes place according to the legal norms is not considered an attack on Lebanese sovereignty,” referring to the European judicial teams that have started arriving in Lebanon to question banking and financial officials in a case related to Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh and possibly the port blast case.

“We will confront any breach of norms,” Khoury added, at a press conference.

Higher Judicial Council judges Habib Mezher, Dany Chebli, Mireille Haddad and Elias Richa on Wednesday announced that they have decided to invite the Higher Judicial Council to convene Thursday to “address a sole topic, which is discussing the requirements of the judicial probe into the case of the Beirut port blast.”

The judges said their decision is aimed at “preserving the proper conduct of justice and the regularity of the work of the judiciary,” adding that they are keen on “all rights” and that their move is based on “Article 6 of the judiciary’s law.”

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has met with Speaker Nabih Berri’s political aide, Ali Hassan Khalil, and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s aide, Hussein al-Khalil, al-Jadeed TV reported.

The meeting took place on Sunday afternoon and discussed limiting the government's agenda to two main items regarding the electricity file, the TV outlet said.

Attorney General Judge Ziad Abu Haidar on Wednesday reversed a previous decision taken by him and tasked Judge Raja Hamoush with facilitating the work of a German judicial delegation seeking to look into the corruption case of Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, LBCI TV reported.

According to LBCI, Abu Haidar had initially refused a request from State Prosecutor Judge Ghassan Oueidat to facilitate the delegation's mission.

Hussein Husseini, Lebanon's former parliament speaker and the father of the 1989 Taif Agreement that ended the country's 15-year civil war, died Wednesday after days of illness. He was 85.

Husseini was admitted to Beirut's American University Medical Center on Jan. 3, after suffering from a strong flu, the state-run National News Agency said. NNA added that Husseini remained in the intensive care unit until his death on Wednesday morning.

The British Embassy in Beirut has categorically rejected "the unsubstantiated, erroneous and misleading claims made in a report on UK support for the IMPACT project published by Al Akhbar on 9 January 2023."

"We are and remain proud of our contribution to anti-corruption efforts in Lebanon, including the important work of the IMPACT platform, Central Inspection and Judge George Attieh," the embassy said in a statement.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Tuesday filed a notice with Financial Prosecutor Judge Ali Ibrahim, asking him to “launch a comprehensive and broad investigation into the work of the LibanPost company and reveal whether there are any offenses, violations or abuses committed by it or by its owners or those in charge of it.”

If it turns out that there are any irregularities, the relevant legal measures should be taken, Mikati, who owns LibanPost, added.