After his dialogue initiative failed, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said he no longer has anything to say.

"The presidential problem is between the Maronites," Berri charged, in remarks published Thursday in al-Joumhouria newspaper.

More than 11,000 Palestine Refugees children in South Lebanon will not be able to join their peers at the beginning of the school year on 2 October. This is a quarter of refugee school children and is due to violence and clashes in the Ain el-Helweh camp, the largest in the country.

“UNRWA was forced to take this decision given all our eight schools inside the camp have been taken over by armed groups. They have sustained significant destruction and damage. Other schools – outside the camp- are currently being used by displaced families,” said Dorothée Klaus, Director of UNRWA Affairs in Lebanon.

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari on Wednesday traveled to the Saudi capital Riyadh, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea urged Tuesday Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to skip dialogue and call for open sessions to elect a president.

"A second electoral round would likely lead to a president," Geagea said, after Berri earlier called on those who rejected his call for dialogue to propose an alternative.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has called those who rejected his call for dialogue to propose an alternative, "if they have one."

In remarks published Tuesday in al-Joumhouria newspaper, Berri announced the end of his initiative. "I no longer have anything to propose," he said. "Do they have an alternative?"

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Tuesday held talks at Dar al-Fatwa with Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan.

“There is no solution for the presidency issue except through understanding and balanced partnership, and this naturally needs dialogue. We have never been against dialogue, but we know that dialogue must be effective, that’s why we stressed to His Eminence and agreed with him that dialogue requires certain circumstances, if we don’t want to say conditions, in order for it to succeed,” Bassil said after the meeting.

Qatari Ambassador to Lebanon Sheikh Saud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani met Monday with the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, the Qatari embassy said.

The talks tackled “the bilateral relations between the two countries and the general situations in Lebanon and the region,” the embassy added in a post on the X platform.

Speaker Nabih Berri has “frozen” his presidential dialogue initiative and the ball now is in the court of those who rejected it, MP Qassem Hashem of Berri’s bloc said on Tuesday.

Asked whether Berri is willing to discuss the nomination of General Security acting chief Elias Bayssari, Hashem said: “Speaker Berri is clear in his proposals and he has supported the nomination of a certain candidate (Suleiman Franjieh).”

Ambassador of the European Union to Lebanon Sandra De Waele on Monday opened the 28th edition of the European Film Festival in Lebanon at the Sursock Museum.

Below is the speech delivered by De Waele at the ceremony as received by Naharnet:

The U.S. has denied any disagreement between the members of the five-nation group on Lebanon who convened last week in New York but failed to issue a statement.

U.S. regional spokesman Samuel Werber denied any disagreement between France, Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the U.S., affirming in an interview Sunday with al-Jadeed TV channel, that the five members all agree that Lebanon must carry out reforms. "The meeting of the five-nation committee was one of the most important meetings on Middle East affairs, and there is no disagreement between the members," he said.