Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri is “cautiously optimistic” regarding the possibility of holding national dialogue over the presidential file, after the initiative that he launched in his speech on Thursday, sources close to him said.

The sources added, in remarks to al-Joumhouria newspaper, that “despite the rejection of Berri’s initiative by some Christian and political forces, it still can secure success if the Free Patriotic Movement, the majority of Sunni MPs and some of the Change MPs take part in dialogue, knowing that positive signs have been made by these forces as to the speaker’s proposal.”

Saudi Arabia has sent clear signals to its allies that “it is prohibited for Tehran to win in Lebanon,” sources informed on the Saudi stance said.

“The Saudi-Iranian agreement includes Yemen in the first degree and Syria in the second degree and its winds are yet to reach Lebanon,” the sources told the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper in remarks published Monday.

Interim Central Bank Governor Wassim Mansouri reassured Monday that the Central Bank will not finance the Lebanese state, neither in dollar nor in LBP.

"The decision is final," Mansouri said in an interview with al-Arabiyya, stressing that the state must find other ways to finance its budget deficit.

A Qatari security envoy is meeting with Lebanese MPs and politicians, away from the spotlight, to discuss the election of Army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun as a consensual president, media reports said.

The Qatari diplomat is meeting with change and independent MPs and has also met with figures close to the Shiite Duo, Ad-Diyar newspaper reported Monday, adding that Qatar prefers to hold the meetings in secrecy as it does not want its initiative to conflict with the French dialogue initiative.

Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel has anew rejected Speaker Nabih Berri’s call for dialogue and said the opposition will confront what he called “Hezbollah’s coup.”

“We are the advocates of dialogue and we’re the ones who are adhering to Lebanon and partnership the most. The moment in which Hezbollah decides to reconsiders its approach we will be ready for dialogue and for finding the solutions that relieve everyone so that we live together, but we are not ready to be second-class citizens,” Gemayel said in an interview on al-Jadeed TV.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has accused Hezbollah of being behind the kidnap and murder of LF member Elias Hasrouni last month, noting that the incident “resembles the dialogue that the Axis of Defiance has been calling for since months.”

“They invite you to dialogue to strangle you and kill you or to stifle your principles, beliefs and freedom and force you to do what they want,” Geagea said in an annual speech commemorating the “martyrs of the Lebanese Resistance”.

Parliament speaker Nabih Berri has renewed his call on political blocs to engage in dialogue to elect a president before the end of September, after 10 months of presidential void.

Crisis-hit Lebanon has been without a president since Michel Aoun's term ended in October last year, with neither of the two main blocs -- Hezbollah and its opponents -- having the majority required to elect one.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday called for a dialogue "without prejudgments."

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has met with Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Nakhalah and Hamas deputy politburo head Sheikh Saleh al-Arouri, Hezbollah said on Saturday.

The ongoing dialogue between Hezbollah and the Free Patriotic Movement has made progress and the FPM has proposed an administrative decentralization plan based on dividing Lebanon into 30 administrative districts, a media report said on Saturday.