A senior Arab League official has arrived in the French capital Paris to discuss the Lebanese file, diplomatic sources in Paris said.

The Arab official “might meet over the coming hours with French and Saudi officials involved in the Lebanese file in an attempt to remove the obstacles that are still preventing Lebanese consensus over a presidential candidate,” Asharq newspaper quoted the sources as saying.

Qatari envoy Jassem Bin Fahad Al-Thani, who has been in Lebanon since weeks to help the crisis-hit country break its presidential impasse, is meeting with Lebanese leaders away from the spotlight.

Al-Thani has met with Marada leader and Hezbollah's presidential candidate Suleiman Franjieh, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, Free Patriotic Movement leader Jebran Bassil, and former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat, media reports said.

Caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi on Wednesday warned that the Syrian presence in Lebanon has become a “security threat,” warning municipalities and mayors against being lax in reining in violations committed by Syrians.

“The issue of the heavy Syrian presence in Lebanon exceeds the infrastructure’s capacity and the state and citizens cannot tolerate this presence,” Mawlawi said at a press conference.

The presidential juncture seems to have reached a dead-end. This is what Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea told L'Orient-Le Jour, in remarks published Wednesday.

This is also what Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah hinted at on Monday, when he said that "there is nothing clear or new in the near future" regarding the presidential file.

The Central Bank has issued a circular preventing banks from deducting new fees from bank accounts created prior to October 2019.

The Bank also asked commercial banks to disclose accurate information about the “real cost” and mechanism of any fees imposed on clients, warning that the Central Bank’s Banking Control Commission will oversee the implementation of the circular and will penalize any violating banks.

The wife of slain Lebanese Forces member Elias Hasrouni, Yvette Sleiman Hasrouni, has died of her wounds following a car crash, the National News Agency reported on Tuesday.

The woman, who hailed from the southern town of Ain Ebel, had been rushed to the Salah Ghandour Hospital in Bint Jbeil suffering a hemorrhage and requiring large quantities of blood, NNA said.

The issue of the army commander post will take center stage in the next few weeks, amid “the lack of chances to reach a solution in the presidential file prior to the January 10 expiry of the army chief’s term,” MTV reported on Tuesday.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil is meanwhile waging an “all-out war” against the army chief, General Joseph Aoun, the TV network said.

The five-nation committee on Lebanon might hold a meeting in Riyadh this week or next week at the latest, al-Binaa newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Sources involved in the presidential file meanwhile told al-Akhbar newspaper that Qatari envoy Jassem bin Fahad Al-Thani “has practically ended the exploratory mission that he carried out without achieving a serious result.”

Kataeb leader Sami Gemayel accused Hezbollah of "hijacking the presidential juncture" after he met Tuesday with the ambassadors of Qatar and Egypt.

"Dialogue is not imposing a candidate in a fruitless meeting," Gemayel said, accusing Hezbollah of being the party refusing dialogue and solutions.

The dependence of the solution in Lebanon on regional solutions has further complicated the country’s crisis, informed sources said.

“The problem is currently linked to Hezbollah’s attempt to guarantee the continuity of its weapons through a decisive power structure, laying out a series of conditions to give up Suleiman Franjieh’s presidential nomination and accept a third choice as per the five-nation committee’s demand,” the sources told Kuwait’s al-Anbaa newspaper in remarks published Tuesday.