The head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, on Friday called for forming a new government that can “serve the priorities” that the country needs, a day after Najib Mikati was designated to form a new cabinet.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati is expected to submit a “balanced” cabinet line-up to President Michel Aoun “within a week at the latest,” political sources said.

Hezbollah backs the Lebanese government’s decision regarding sea border demarcation and its response to the proposal presented to the U.S. mediator was “not negative,” PM-designate Najib Mikati said.

The Free Patriotic Movement may choose “some ministers from the caretaker cabinet to represent it in the new government, including Saadeh al-Shami and all those President (Michel) Aoun cares about, in order to facilitate the formation of a new government,” sources close to Aoun told al-Jadeed TV.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati won Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s “blessing” for his nomination to form the new government although he was not named in the binding consultations by the country’s two biggest Christian parties – the Free Patriotic Movement and the Lebanese Forces, media reports said.

Prior to his designation, Mikati “engaged in dialogue with the LF and sought indirect talks with the FPM, relying on Hizbullah’s assistance,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Friday.

The High Court of Justice in London has ordered Savaro Ltd to disclose the identity of its ultimate beneficiary owner who had sent the ammonium nitrate to Beirut on the Rhosus ship.

In august 2021, the Dechert LLP had filed an action in the High Court of London against Savaro on behalf of the Beirut Bar Association and a number of victims or their relatives of the Beirut Port Explosion.

Al-Mawared Bank announced Friday the suspension of its membership in the Association of Banks as it accused the association of failing to protect the banks and the depositors.

The Bank in a statement accused the Association of taking decisions "that are not necessarily in the interest of its members and of the depositors," since the beginning of the crisis in October 2019, and of "failing to protect the banking sector."

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati will start the non-binding consultations to form a government on Monday, the Parliament General Secretariat said.

It announced Friday in a statement the schedule of the consultations with the parliamentary blocs that will be held at the parliament on Monday and Tuesday.

President Michel Aoun stressed Friday the Palestinians' right to return to their homeland and build their independent state, as he met Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Baabda.

Haniyeh said, after the meeting, that he refuses the naturalization of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and the idea of an alternative homeland.

The Israeli Embassy in Uruguay has expressed its "concern" about a cargo plane with Iranian and Venezuelan crew that has been grounded outside Buenos Aires more than two weeks.

In a news release, the embassy said some of the Iranian crew members "were involved directly in the trafficking of weapons to Syria and the terrorist organization Hezbollah of Lebanon."