Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel stressed Wednesday that it is important to speed up the election but not to surrender to Hezbollah's candidate.

"We will not give up," Gemayel said, adding that he will boycott any session that would elect Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh. "We will secure the blocking one-third in such an electoral session."

Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib met Wednesday with his Syrian counterpart Faisal al-Miqdad on the sidelines of the Arab foreign ministers' meeting in Jeddah.

"The meeting was cordial," al-Miqdad said, adding that all refugees are welcome back to Syria and should return.

Maronite Patriarch Beshra al-Rahi has received an official invitation to Paris to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron, Bkerki's spokesperson Walid Ghayyad said.

Ghayyad told MTV that the date of the visit has not yet been set.

The World Bank's Lebanon Economic Monitor presented in its spring issue findings from recent World Bank work on Lebanon.

It examined the continuous decline in the Lebanese economy amidst what it called "a normalization of the state of the crisis."

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri met Wednesday in Ain el-Tineh over the upcoming Arab League Summit in Jeddah.

"We discussed the points that I will raise at the Summit," Mikati said. "The meeting, like usual, was positive," he added.

"There is no agreement yet with the Lebanese Forces," a Free Patriotic Movement MP said.

MP Jimmy Jabbour explained that there is an ongoing dialogue with the LF and that the current situation requires an agreement on a presidential candidate.

Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel has denied that he is mediating between Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil in the presidential file.

“I’m also not promoting (the candidacy) of Jihad Azour and I have not visited Bassil nor talked to him, but the communication channels between us are open,” Gemayel said in remarks to MTV.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati is willing to lead a ministerial delegation to Syria, Caretaker Minister of the Displaced Issam Sharafeddine said.

Sharafeddine said that Mikati has informed the ministers about his willingness to visit Syria during a consultative ministerial meeting and that the date of the visit will be decided on Monday.

The Lebanese Forces urged Tuesday Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to call for an open-ended election session, instead of obstructing the election of a president.

In a statement, the LF told Berri that, as a speaker, he doesn't have the right to interfere in what the opposition is doing.

An Arab league summit in Saudi Arabia will discuss Friday the Lebanese crisis, media reports said.

"The Lebanese file will be one of the main items on the summit's agenda," a diplomatic source told al-Joumhouria, in remarks published Tuesday.