Four years after Lebanon's historic meltdown began, the small nation is still facing "enormous economic challenges," with a collapsed banking sector, eroding public services, deteriorating infrastructure and worsening poverty, the International Monetary Fund warned Friday.

In a statement issued at the end of a four-day visit by an IMF delegation to the crisis-hit country, the international agency welcomed recent policy decisions by Lebanon's central bank to stop lending to the state and end the work in an exchange platform known as Sayrafa.

French Special Presidential Envoy for Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian has not proposed a third-man solution, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said.

Berri told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, in remarks published Friday, that he and Le Drian are on the same wavelength, denying media reports that had claimed that both candidates, Suleiman Franjieh and Jihad Azour, will not be elected.

A president will likely be elected soon, French Special Presidential Envoy for Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Friday.

The PM's office said that Le Drian called Mikati and both assured that Le Drian's talks in Lebanon were "positive" regarding the "imminent election of a president."

There are Arab, regional and international efforts to resolve the Lebanese presidential crisis through the election of a “settlement president,” Arab diplomatic sources said, amid a progress in the regional files, especially as to Yemen’s war.

The “settlement president” should not be part of any axis and should be acceptable to the majority of parliament’s members, the sources told al-Liwaa newspaper in remarks published Friday.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has met more than once with Marada leader and presidential candidate Suleiman Franjieh, al-Jadeed reported.

The TV network claimed that the two leaders discussed Franjieh's presidential chances and that Franjieh asked Nasrallah during their meetings to be briefed in advance about any upcoming settlement.

MP Ashraf Rifi has described as “good” the meeting that was held Thursday in Yarze between Saudi Ambassador Walid Bukhari, French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan and 21 Sunni MPs.

It was aimed at “facilitating the presidential election process,” Rifi told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in remarks published Friday, noting that there is a new drive that might lead to the election of Army chief Joseph Aoun as president.

French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian’s visit to Lebanon has failed to achieve any breakthrough in the Lebanese presidential file, a pro-Hezbollah newspaper said on Friday.

“It appeared once again that the Saudi stance has not changed … and this made everyone convinced that the dialogue that Speaker Nabih Berri has called for is hinging on the upcoming meeting of the representatives of the five-nation committee for Lebanon, which will be held on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York before the end of this month,” al-Akhbar newspaper said.

Palestinian fighters have agreed a new ceasefire after more than a week of deadly violence in Lebanon's largest refugee camp, two Palestinian officials told AFP.

At least 17 people have been killed and around 100 wounded in the fighting in Ain el-Helweh refugee camp, on the outskirts of the port city of Sidon, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent's Lebanon branch.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through its Community Support Program (CSP), has celebrated the completion of the rehabilitation of the Aaitanit Wastewater Treatment Plant in the Beqaa.

In partnership with the Beqaa Water Establishment (BWE) and the Bouhaira Union of Municipalities, this $1.5 million intervention treats water for the villages of Aaitanit, Baaloul, Qaraoun, and Machghara, reaching more than 23,700 residents. The ribbon-cutting ceremony was attended by Minister of Energy and Water Dr. Walid Fayyad, Minister of Environment Dr. Nasser Yassin, USAID Lebanon Mission Director Julie Southfield, representatives from the BWE and the Bouhaira Union of Municipalities, and mayors of the benefiting villages.

Army Commander General Joseph Aoun on Thursday inspected troops at the Mohammed Zgheib Barracks in Sidon amid the ongoing deadly clashes in the Ain el-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp on the city’s outskirts.