Hezbollah central council member Sheikh Nabil Qaouq has noted that “there are foreign, international and domestic initiatives to resolve the presidential crisis but no progress towards a solution.”

“This is because the challenge and confrontation folk have torpedoed all these initiatives due to deep-rooted grudges and failed bets,” Qaouq said.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has warned some domestic political forces against being “delusional” regarding the presidential file.

“Delusional are those waiting for the balances of power to change so that their candidate reaches the presidency, such as betting on a strike against Hezbollah or Iran, the fall of (Syrian) President (Bashar) al-Assad, or betting on a Syrian-Saudi or Saudi-Iranian understanding,” Bassil said during a visit to Zahle.

A demo dubbed “Freedoms March” was attacked and besieged by a mob Saturday in downtown Beirut after it was accused of “promoting homosexuality.”

The attacks against protesters and journalists left several people wounded and the besieged individuals were eventually evacuated in Internal Security Forces armored vehicles after several hours of chaos.

Gunmen withdrew Friday from the schools they were occupying in the Ain el-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp, as a joint Palestinian force started deploying in the camp’s al-Taamir area.

The National News Agency said a “positive atmosphere” was engulfing the deployment process and that the Palestinian force was supposed to enter into the camp’s schools.

The Internal Security Forces has confirmed that a food delivery driver who opened fire outside the U.S. Embassy in Beirut last week allegedly did so because of a personal grudge against the guards at the compound.

The ISF said they had arrested the suspected shooter on Monday, identifying him only by his initials M.K. and that he later confessed to the shooting.

A bus carrying illegal Syrian migrants has been stopped by security forces in the coastal area of Hamat.

“A patrol from the Intelligence Branch (of the Internal Security Forces) managed at 1am to stop a bus driven by a Lebanese national and carrying 12 Syrians who had entered Lebanon illegally via an illegal border crossing in Wadi Khaled,” the state-run National News Agency said.

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka on Thursday visited the Bekaa and Baalbek. She met with local Lebanese authorities, the UNHCR Lebanon Representative and visited a UNHCR community support project.

Central Bank interim governor Wassim Mansouri on Thursday reassured that the bank will continue to pay the salaries of the public sector in U.S. dollars, which “provides stability to 400,000 families.”

“This is not a long-term stability but rather fragile stability, and if no president is elected the economic situations will further deteriorate,” Mansouri warned, following a meeting with the Economic and Social Council of Lebanon.

The driver of a van carrying illegal Syrian migrants on Thursday ran over a Lebanese soldier and tried to flee an army patrol before being killed in the incident, an army statement said.

“As an army patrol was trying to stop a Hyundai van carrying Syrians who had illegally entered Lebanon in the al-Qbour al-Beed area on the northern border, the vehicle driver ran over a member of the patrol and tried to flee the site despite the firing of warning shots in the air by the rest of the patrol members,” the statement said.

French Special Presidential Envoy for Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian has met in Saudi Arabia with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the Saudi foreign ministry said.

The talks tackled “the bilateral ties between the kingdom and France, means to intensify common coordination in several fields, in addition to discussing the latest developments of the Lebanese file and the regional and international events,” the ministry added.