Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil said overnight that his call for broad administrative and financial decentralization and for establishing a trust fund is not part of any “bargain or deal.”

“The equation of decentralization at the regional and local level and the trust fund at the national level is an equation for rescuing Lebanon at the financial, economic and social levels, regardless of any constitutional juncture,” Bassil said at a dinner for FPM expats.

Calm was engulfing the Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp on Wednesday after a ceasefire entered into effect following four days of deadly clashes between the Fatah Movement and hardline Islamist militants.

One of history's biggest non-nuclear explosions rocked Beirut on August 4, 2020, destroying swathes of the Lebanese capital, killing more than 220 people and injuring at least 6,500.

Three years on, the probe into the traumatic disaster caused by a huge pile of poorly-stored fertiliser remains bogged down in legal and political wrangling, to the dismay of victims' families.

Russia pulled out of a deal brokered by the U.N. and Turkey to allow Ukraine's grain to flow during a global food crisis. It helped stabilize food prices that soared last year after Russia invaded Ukraine — two countries that are major suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other food to developing nations.

Lebanon, Egypt -- the world's largest wheat importer, and other lower-income Middle Eastern countries like Pakistan worry about what comes next.

Dany Salameh was already ill but a blast that devastated Beirut's port three years ago aggravated his condition, leaving him dependent on a walker and feeling abandoned by authorities.

People hurt or disabled by the catastrophic explosion told AFP that Lebanon, bankrupt and politically paralysed, has failed to deliver adequate medical care, financial support or justice.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday described the deadly clashes at the Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp as “painful.”

Fruit and vegetable seller Ismail Akkawi had no choice but to brave days of intermittent but deadly fighting in Lebanon's biggest Palestinian refugee camp in order to make ends meet.

The produce market at the heart of the restive Ain al-Helweh camp -- in the southern coastal city of Sidon -- is usually bustling with vendors, but few have ventured out since clashes broke out in the camp late Saturday.

Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab held talks Tuesday in Ain el-Tineh with Speaker Nabih Berri.

Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel has held responsible for the deadly clashes in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Helweh near Sidon.

Cabinet convene Tuesday to resume the discussion of the 2023 state budget.

Last month, the ministers received the budget draft law from the Finance Ministry and cabinet started successive sessions to discuss and approve it.