Taking note of the June 14 botched presidential vote, the International Support Group (ISG) said it regrets that Lebanon has yet to elect a president after 12 inconclusive presidential election sessions.

“After eight months with neither a president nor a fully functioning government, the ISG is deeply concerned that the current political stalemate is exacerbating the erosion of state institutions and undermining Lebanon’s ability to address the country’s pressing socioeconomic, financial, security and humanitarian challenges,” the ISG said in a statement.

A federal judge in Argentina has called on Interpol to detain four Lebanese citizens, so they can be questioned for their suspected role in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center that killed 85 people.

"Regarding these individuals, there are well-founded suspicions that they are collaborators or operational agents of the … armed wing of Hezbollah," judge Daniel Rafecas wrote in a resolution dated June 13 that the Associated Press obtained Thursday.

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari met Thursday with French presidential adviser Patrick Durel to discuss the Lebanese presidential file, TV networks said.

Media reports published Thursday had said that “the French are pushing for an urgent settlement for the Lebanese file,” a day after a 12th presidential election session failed to produce a new president.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said overnight that “Lebanon cannot continue with the current state structure if we want to have an active, unified and inclusive Lebanese state.”

Geagea was responding to an LBCI question about the “solution” after Lebanon’s repeated presidential election crises and whether there is a “major problem in the system and in the structure of this state.”

Bkerki is dismayed at the loss of quorum in the second round of Wednesday's presidential election session, Nidaa al-Watan reported Thursday.

Bkerki's sources blamed the deputies who obstructed the second round of vote, especially the Christian MPs, the daily said.

MPs from the Democratic Gathering bloc of the Progressive Socialist Party said in the wake of Wednesday’s presidential election session that it is no longer possible to continue to back Jihad Azour’s nomination, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Thursday.

Five Free Patriotic Movement lawmakers are meanwhile suspected of having voted for Suleiman Franjieh in defiance of the FPM’s declared support for Azour, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper said.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has called dialogue “without preconditions” regarding the presidential crisis, hours after a 12th presidential election session failed to produce a new president.

“The session proved that no one can bypass the Christian component as to the presidency, that no one can impose a president on anyone, and that the FPM is committed and only follows its beliefs,” Bassil tweeted.

Hopes are pinned on the efforts that French presidential envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian will begin in the coming days regarding the Lebanese presidential file, political sources involved in the file said.

“It has become certain that the French are pushing for an urgent settlement for the Lebanese file, which Paris had previously outlined,” the sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Thursday, a day after a 12th presidential election session failed to produce a new president.

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller has voiced concern over Lebanese lawmakers who left on Wednesday a presidential election session to deny a quorum.

Miller said that Lebanese "urgently need a president who can enact reforms" to unlock International Monetary Fund support.

Syrian refugees languishing in camps in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley for years say their hopes for the future are evaporating as their host country loses patience and international support dwindles.

Ibrahim al-Korbaw is only 48, but the hardships of war and poverty have aged the white-bearded man beyond his years.