Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has confirmed that he has rejected “domestic and foreign” proposals for the election of Suleiman Franjieh as president in return for the appointment of a pro-opposition premier.

Independent MP and presidential candidate Michel Mouawad said Friday that he will not accept to be insulted, after Speaker Nabih Berri described him as an “in vitro experiment” candidate.

"What Berri said is not acceptable," Mouawad said. "We are not students in a classroom."

Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Judge Ghada Aoun has suspended her investigations into suspsected violations committed by Lebanon’s banks, at the request of State Prosecutor Judge Ghassan Oueidat, ad-Diyar newspaper reported on Friday.

Former General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim has started “calm planning” for the role that he will play in the coming period, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Friday.

The so-called Franjieh-for-Salam presidential settlement proposal was “born dead,” political sources deeply involved in the presidential file have said.

Hezbollah condemned Friday remarks by the Head of Foreign Affairs in the Lebanese Forces Party, Richard Kouyoumjian, who criticized the Shiite Mutaa marriage and the political Shiism that he described as "arrogant."

"Even if religion allows it, Mutaa marriage remains an adultery that results in an illegitimate child whose mother is ashamed of, and whose actual father is different from his real father," Kouyoumjian had said in a tweet.

Lebanon is navigating a devastating economic crisis that has plunged more than 80 percent of the population into poverty, according to the United Nations.

Strikes and absenteeism have paralyzed public services, the state is barely able to provide a few hours of mains electricity a day, and the local currency has lost most of its value against the greenback since 2019.

MP Wael Abu Faour has affirmed to Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat that Saudi Arabia will not support the election of Hezbollah's presidential candidate Suleiman Franjieh, Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported Friday.

Marada leader Franjieh, a former lawmaker and minister close to Hezbollah and a personal friend of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has not officially announced his candidacy, but said he was interested in the position.

Presidential candidate MP Michel Mouawad on Thursday lashed out at Speaker Nabih Berri in a barb-filled statement, after the latter described him as an “in vitro experiment” candidate.

Supermarkets in Lebanon have started pricing items in U.S. dollars instead of the nose-diving local currency, after a government announcement allowing the practice in a country heavily reliant on imports.

Since late 2019, Lebanon has been facing a dramatic economic crisis that has seen poverty rates climb to reach more than 80 percent of the population, according to the United Nations.