Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea criticized Wednesday the parliament and the government for postponing the municipal elections for up to a year and said that the LF and the opposition forces will file an appeal against the municipalities' term extension law.

Parliament on Tuesday had passed a law that extends municipalities' term for a second time, in a session boycotted by the Lebanese Forces, Kataeb, Tajaddod and Change MPs.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Wednesday followed up with caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi on “the preparations for holding the municipal elections based on the law issued yesterday by parliament,” the National News Agency said.

“It was agreed that the Interior Minister would prepare the new and needed budget for organizing the elections so that a line of credit can be opened,” NNA added.

Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel felt “frustrated” after his Paris meeting with French presidential adviser Patrick Durel, after he sensed that a presidential breakthrough serving the opposition’s interest has become impossible, a media report said.

Sources close to Gemayel told al-Akhbar newspaper that Durel “was clear and decisive when he said that the only possible solution now was to endorse the candidate Suleiman Franjieh.”

A new round of Saudi-French contacts was held last week and the French managed to make a “major breakthrough” in Riyadh’s stance on the Lebanese presidential file, a media report said on Wednesday.

“We have never heard from Saudi Arabia of a veto on (Suleiman) Franjieh, but today we heard a call for an open dialogue over the details of this settlement and how to finalize it in a way that makes everyone a winner,” al-Akhbar newspaper quoted Paris as telling Lebanese political forces.

Members of Khalde’s Arab tribes blocked Wednesday the Khaldeh-Beirut highway, after the military court issued rulings overnight against detainees of the Khaldeh 2021 clashes.

In August 2021, deadly armed clashes erupted during the funeral of a Hezbollah-linked man who was killed a night before in a vendetta shooting. The clashes left at least five people including three Hezbollah members dead.

Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh held talks Tuesday in Bkirki with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

“What we’re seeing in the media is baseless and distorted, seeing as settlements have started in the region, rivals will reconcile, the game has changed and this matter will reflect on Lebanon,” Franjieh said after the meeting.

U.S. Embassy Beirut on Tuesday marked the 40th anniversary of the April 18, 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, in which a suicide bomber attacked the embassy, killing 63, including 52 Lebanese and American Embassy employees.

Families of the victims joined Ambassador Dorothy Shea, Deputy Chief of Mission Richard Michaels, and the Embassy community to honor and pay tribute to the men and women who lost their lives in this attack, and to pay respects to their families and loved ones.

After the nominations of Suleiman Franjieh and Michel Mouawad “nearly reached a dead end,” efforts got underway to find a “third candidate” on which the opposition’s 45 MPs can agree, political sources said.

“There are more than 20 MPs who are yet to take a stance, pending consensus on an acceptable candidate whom they can support,” the sources told the al-Anbaa news portal of the Progressive Socialist Party.

Security forces Tuesday fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters, including retired soldiers, who tried to break through the fence leading to the government headquarters in downtown Beirut, ahead of a cabinet session.

The protesters hurled stones at the armed forces protecting the government headquarters and repeatedly tried to break through the fence, while some of them suffered breathing problems from the tear gas.

Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh “will not continue with his presidential nomination if he does not sense a positive stance from the Gulf states and the Arab nations regarding this nomination,” caretaker Information Minister Ziad Makari of the Marada Movement said.

“He does not intend to repeat the experience of ex-president Michel Aoun” with the Gulf countries, Makari told al-Hurra television.