Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati held talks Thursday in Baabda with President Michel Aoun.

Al-Jadeed television said the focus of the meeting was Mikati’s asking of permission from Aoun to travel to Britain to take part in Queen Elizabeth’s funeral and to New You to represent Lebanon at the U.N. General Assembly meetings.

President Michel Aoun on Wednesday stressed that “the completion of the southern sea border demarcation file will enable Lebanon to launch the process of exploring for oil and gas in the specified fields within the Exclusive Economic Zone.”

“This will give the Lebanese economy a positive impetus to begin exiting the crisis it has been reeling under for years,” the president added.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Wednesday threatened to sue caretaker Finance Minister Youssef Khalil.

If Khalil “continues to obstruct the judicial appointments decree, we will have to organize an accusatory petition to prosecute him for dereliction of duty,” Geagea warned in a tweet.

A dispute between the Sharaf and al-Ammar families escalated into an armed clash Wednesday in the West Bekaa town of Mashghara, the National News Agency said.

The agency said the dispute was linked to previous tensions over cattle grazing and resulted in the death of H. Sharaf and A. Sharaf and the wounding of M. al-Ammar and his brother A. al-Ammar.

A woman carrying a toy pistol and a dozen activists broke into a Beirut bank branch on Wednesday, taking $13,000 from what the activists say were her trapped savings.

Sali Hafez, who herself is a known activist, told Al-Jadeed TV that she needed the money to fund her sister's cancer treatment. She said she had repeatedly visited the bank to ask for her money and was told she could only receive $200 a month in Lebanese pounds. Hafez said the toy pistol belonged to her nephew.

A parliament session over the state budget was postponed on Wednesday due to lack of quorum as it coincided with the 40th anniversary of former President Bashir Gemayel's assassination.

The majority of Christian MPs boycotted the session, while fifty eight MPs arrived at the Parliament, expressing discontent over the budget draft law.

Israel is keen to make a deal with Lebanon regarding the maritime border, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said in a meeting with U.N. diplomats in New York on Tuesday.

“The State of Israel is interested in progressing maritime border negotiations with Lebanon,” Gantz said. “In the end, there will be two gas rigs, one Israeli and one Lebanese. The question is whether we can reach this scenario without an unnecessary escalation as a result of Hezbollah threats,” he added, according to English-language remarks published by Israel’s Jerusalem Post.

President Michel Aoun on Tuesday stressed “the need to exert every effort to form a new government.”

He added, in a meeting with a delegation from the Economic Committees, that the alternative would be to “bolster the current government with six new state ministers who would be politicians.”

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri will call for a presidential vote session before the end of President Michel Aoun’s term on October 31, MP Ali Hassan Khalil announced on Tuesday.

“Several sessions might be held,” Khalil added, following a meeting between Berri’s Development and Liberation bloc and a delegation from the Change bloc.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati on Tuesday stressed that he will “continue all the efforts aimed at forming the new government.”

“All those concerned must meanwhile support these efforts and refrain from continuing to put conditions and obstacles in a blatant attempt to achieve political gains whose timing is inappropriate and which cannot be accepted,” Mikati added.