Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari met Thursday with French presidential adviser Patrick Durel to discuss the Lebanese presidential file, TV networks said.

Media reports published Thursday had said that “the French are pushing for an urgent settlement for the Lebanese file,” a day after a 12th presidential election session failed to produce a new president.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said overnight that “Lebanon cannot continue with the current state structure if we want to have an active, unified and inclusive Lebanese state.”

Geagea was responding to an LBCI question about the “solution” after Lebanon’s repeated presidential election crises and whether there is a “major problem in the system and in the structure of this state.”

Bkerki is dismayed at the loss of quorum in the second round of Wednesday's presidential election session, Nidaa al-Watan reported Thursday.

Bkerki's sources blamed the deputies who obstructed the second round of vote, especially the Christian MPs, the daily said.

MPs from the Democratic Gathering bloc of the Progressive Socialist Party said in the wake of Wednesday’s presidential election session that it is no longer possible to continue to back Jihad Azour’s nomination, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Thursday.

Five Free Patriotic Movement lawmakers are meanwhile suspected of having voted for Suleiman Franjieh in defiance of the FPM’s declared support for Azour, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper said.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has called dialogue “without preconditions” regarding the presidential crisis, hours after a 12th presidential election session failed to produce a new president.

“The session proved that no one can bypass the Christian component as to the presidency, that no one can impose a president on anyone, and that the FPM is committed and only follows its beliefs,” Bassil tweeted.

Hopes are pinned on the efforts that French presidential envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian will begin in the coming days regarding the Lebanese presidential file, political sources involved in the file said.

“It has become certain that the French are pushing for an urgent settlement for the Lebanese file, which Paris had previously outlined,” the sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Thursday, a day after a 12th presidential election session failed to produce a new president.

U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller has voiced concern over Lebanese lawmakers who left on Wednesday a presidential election session to deny a quorum.

Miller said that Lebanese "urgently need a president who can enact reforms" to unlock International Monetary Fund support.

Syrian refugees languishing in camps in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley for years say their hopes for the future are evaporating as their host country loses patience and international support dwindles.

Ibrahim al-Korbaw is only 48, but the hardships of war and poverty have aged the white-bearded man beyond his years.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Wednesday described the walkout of the pro-Suleiman Franjieh lawmakers from the 12 presidential election session as “a real and actual obstruction of the entire presidential election process.”

“Had the second round (of voting) been held today, we would have had a president now,” Geagea tweeted.

On Wednesday, supporters of former finance minister Jihad Azour accused Hezbollah and its allies of blocking the democratic process.

Hezbollah and Amal MPs had withdrawn following the first round of electoral voting on Wednesday, breaking the quorum, after Azour failed to reach the two-thirds majority needed to win in the first round.