Army Commander General Joseph Aoun is currently the leading candidate in the presidential race, but French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian is insisting to return to Beirut with two or three names, informed sources said.

“This would facilitate the discussion with the hesitant parties or those who have reservations over the army chief, such as the Free Patriotic Movement,” the sources added, in remarks to Kuwait’s al-Anbaa newspaper.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has announced that he is “clinging to” his presidential dialogue initiative.

“It is the only one present on the table,” Berri told al-Manar television overnight.

Lebanese native Hosams Abu Meri has been appointed as Latvia's new health minister.

European Union member Cyprus has warned against allowing Lebanon to “collapse,” noting that such a development would create a refugee crisis for Europe.

In a letter to European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas, Cypriot Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said he has raised the urgent need for aid to Lebanon, where it is estimated that 2.5 million Syrians have taken refuge.

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.