The talks between French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “will likely expedite the domestic steps for electing a new president before the end of the current month,” a parliamentary source said.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Saturday criticized the MPs who walked out of Wednesday's presidential election session, saying they prevented the electoral process from taking its "constitutional and democratic course."

Interpol has issued an international warrant for a Lebanese man suspected of trafficking stolen antiquities, weeks after he was questioned in Lebanon, judicial officials said.

The Red Notice was unsealed 10 months after a criminal court in New York issued an arrest warrant for Georges Lotfi, 82, charging him with criminal possession of stolen property as well as possessing looted artifacts.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have called for a "rapid end to the institutional political vacuum in Lebanon," the Elysee said.

Macron had been expected to seek support from Bin Salman to find a solution in the search for a new president in Lebanon, a stalemate causing increasing exasperation for France.

A son of Libya's leader Moammar Gadhafi is suffering deteriorating health during the second week of a hunger strike to protest his detention in Beirut without trial, his lawyer said Friday.

Hannibal Gadhafi is only drinking small amounts of water, his lawyer Paul Romanos said, adding that his client is suffering from weakness and muscle pains.

France is still clinging to its presidential initiative for Lebanon and will work on “re-floating it based on the results of the latest electoral session,” high-ranking sources said.

The results “showed that (Suleiman) Franjieh is immunized by a firm camp that is dealing seriously with his nomination in the face of an opposition camp whose disunity and non-intersection over a single objective have shown,” the sources told al-Akhbar newspaper, in remarks published Friday.

Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab on Friday warned that a presidential understanding would need “dialogue” and that “the country cannot withstand three more months” of vacuum.

“I urged Speaker Berri to begin considering early parliamentary elections should the current parliament fail to elect a president,” Bou Saab said after meeting Berri.

The MPs of the opposition forces have announced that ex-minister Jihad Azour remains their presidential candidate, in the wake of a 12th electoral session that failed to produce a new president.

“The electoral session has proven, without doubt, that the vast majority of the Lebanese people’s representatives clearly reject the candidate imposed by the (Axis of) Defiance camp, seeing as despite the rallying efforts and all the pressures that were exerted in the past days, he only managed to get 51 votes, in the face of 77 MPs who voted against this nomination, among whom 59 voted for the centrist candidate Jihad Azour,” 31 opposition MPs said in a statement.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has said that he will await the outcome of the current regional and international efforts before calling for a new presidential election session.

“Lebanon is present on the agenda of most meetings,” Berri said in an interview with Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, noting that Wednesday’s election session has proved that there should be “dialogue and consensus instead of challenge and provocation.”

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.