As the government was finalizing its budget discussions during a session on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil made 12 suggestions to include in the budget and slash the deficit which pushed its approval until Friday, media reports said on Thursday.

Four Lebanese students from the southern town of Yaroun have been killed in a car crash in the U.S. state of California, Lebanon's National News Agency said.

It identified the four as Hussein Saleh, Hussein Saab, Hussein Ghasham and Hussein Ayyoub.

The Cabinet held a new session on the 2019 state budget on Tuesday but failed to finalize the draft although it has held around a dozen sessions since late April.

“A final reading of the state budget will be held tomorrow at noon at the Grand Serail,” State Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Mahmoud Qmati said after the session.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday condemned what it called “preemptive and suspicious” protests that have accompanied the government's state budget discussions as well as Monday's attempt to storm the Grand Serail by a number of retired servicemen protesting feared salary cuts.

“The government is asked to settle the ongoing bickering inside and outside Cabinet and it hopes the state budget will be finalized and sent to Parliament,” said the bloc in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

President Michel Aoun on Tuesday said the austere budget measures planned by the government will “pay off” in the end and will help Lebanon overcome the economic “crisis.”

The Lebanese army gave an urgent notice to Syrian refugees in the Bekaa town of Arsal to remove all illegal cement-built camps before June 10, citing security reasons, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat reported on Tuesday.

In light of a US mediation between Lebanon and Israel over the border demarcation, Israel has reportedly “agreed” to the idea of ​​demarcation but refused to involve the UNIFIL forces in said talks, the Saudi Ashraq al-Awsat daily reported on Tuesday.

The United States and Israel are to blame for “the escalation and tensions in the region,” Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem told a U.N. official on Monday.

“The rhetoric being used by this front is a rhetoric of threats and war and this might push things to the brink of confrontation,” Qassem said to U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis during a meeting.

Lines of cars were seen queuing outside fuel stations in Lebanon on Monday as a customs strike threatened to spark a shortage crisis.

A statement issued by the union of companies that import oil to Lebanon meanwhile said the firms have failed to deliver new stocks to gas stations due to the strike of customs employees.

Information Minister Jamal al-Jarrah announced Monday that the Cabinet will hold its “final session” on the 2019 state budget on Tuesday, as Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil was accused of “delaying” discussions.

“I believe that tomorrow's session will be the final one and today the issue of ministers and MPs' salaries was discussed,” Jarrah said after Monday's session.