The U.S. has imposed sanctions on a group of individuals, firms and vessels connected to an oil smuggling outfit said to benefit Hezbollah and Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

More than a dozen companies, six individuals and 11 vessels flagged from around the world — from Djibouti to Panama — are included in the sanctions package, for allegedly participating in a scheme that included blending and exporting sanctioned Iranian oil.

Lebanon is unable to put its new exchange rate into effect after its outgoing president declared the state budget unconstitutional and refused to sign off on it, officials said.

The Finance Ministry in late September announced that Lebanon would change its pegged exchange rate to the dollar from 1,500 pounds to 15,000 starting Nov. 1, which they called a "necessary corrective action." Parliament passed the cash-strapped country's 2022 national budget in September, which included the amended rate. However, it took at least another week of bureaucracy before reaching President Michel Aoun's office.

The futile debate between caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Free Patriotic chief Jebran Bassil over who of the two obstructed the government formation, who should have named the ministers and why wouldn't the FPM MPs give their confidence to Mikati's government, led Thursday to another dispute in parliament as the MPs discussed the legitimacy of the caretaker government.

As parliament convened to discuss a letter by former President Michel Aoun over the legitimacy of the caretaker government, Mikati said that he would have stepped down only if Bassil hadn't called for it.

The Constitutional Council on Thursday rejected four more appeals against some results of the May 15 parliamentary elections.

At a press conference, Council chief Judge Tannous Meshleb announced that the four appeals that were dismissed are the following:

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has called for a special conference under the auspices of the United Nations to resolve the disagreement between the Lebanese parties.

"As long as the officials are not ready to sit together to resolve their disagreements, I have called for a special conference," al-Rahi told LBCI.

Security forces arrested at dawn Thursday the three depositors Ibrahim Baydoun, Ali al-Saheli and Catherine al-Ali as well as prominent lawyer and activist Rami Ollaik for their storming Wednesday of Credit Libanais bank in Hazmieh, the National News Agency said.

Security forces also safely evacuated the bank employees who had been held as hostages.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Thursday reminded that caretaker PM Najib Mikati had said that there was “no need to form a government,” describing it as a “dangerous constitutional precedent.”

“He set the condition of obtaining (our) confidence in order to form the government, although his designation did not win (our) confidence, which means that he had decided not to form a government,” Bassil said after a parliamentary session dedicated to discussing ex-President Michel Aoun’s letter on the legitimacy of the caretaker cabinet.

Parliament recommended Thursday that cabinet continue its work in caretaker capacity after it discussed a letter by ex-President Michel Aoun concerning the resignation of the caretaker cabinet.

The caretaker cabinet can only convene in extraordinary cases, parliament said.

A decade of appalling civil war has left Syria fragmented and in ruins but one thing crosses every front line: a drug called captagon.

The stimulant -- once notorious for its association with Islamic State fighters -- has spawned an illegal $10 billion industry that not only props up the pariah regime of President Bashar al-Assad, but many of his enemies.

Parliament convened Thursday to discuss a letter by ex-President Michel Aoun concerning the resignation of the caretaker cabinet.

The session will not be broadcast to the public, and media reports expected it to be fiery.