Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has visited Qatar to discuss the Lebanese presidential file with Qatari officials, media reports said.

The Qataris, encouraged by the U.S., suggested again the nomination of Army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun during their meeting with Bassil on Sunday, al-Akhabar newspaper said.

Bkirki will resume its talks with the Lebanese parties over the presidential file, a media report said on Monday.

The efforts will be launched at the beginning of this week, the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported.

French President Emmanuel Macron's new special envoy for Lebanon heads to Beirut on Wednesday as France seeks a new push to end a political crisis that has left the country without a president for over half a year, a diplomatic source said.

Former foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, appointed by Macron to the role earlier this month, is to fly to Beirut on Wednesday, the source told AFP, asking not to be named.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has suggested that the Hezbollah-led camp “wants to impose the election of Suleiman Franjieh as president, or else it will continue to obstruct the electoral process indefinitely.”

“This camp will not allow electoral sessions in the near future,” Geagea said, in an interview with Lebanon’s French-language daily L'Orient-Le Jour’.

Parliament on Monday approved to open a line of credit to fund public sector salaries in a session boycotted by 29 opposition MPs.

The Free Patriotic Movement attended the session after it said in a statement that it would only attend urgent sessions, while 29 MPs, including independent MPs and MPs from the Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb party and the Tajaddod bloc boycotted the session.

An Arab diplomat has ruled out the possibility that French presidential envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian might carry ideas aimed at resolving Lebanon’s presidential crisis during his upcoming visit to Beirut.

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.