French oil giant TotalEnergies will begin drilling for potential gas reserves in Lebanon’s offshore Block 9 in late September, a company official said.

"It has become clear that the Free Patriotic Movement is not taking part in any alignment," FPM MP Salim Aoun said Tuesday, in a tweet.

The tweet came after Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah openly named Suleiman Franjieh as its presidential candidate.

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka said Tuesday that state institutions should be responsive to people’s needs.

"The current crisis in Lebanon further underlines the responsibility of the political leaders to enable and empower state institutions to deliver," Wronecka stressed in a tweet.

Lebanon has Tuesday its voting rights in the United Nations 193-member General Assembly, after paying its dues to the U.N.’s operating budget, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.

Lebanon needed to pay a minimum of $1,835,303 to restore its voting rights and was among six nations that had lost theirs.

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari met Tuesday with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkerki over the Lebanese presidential file.

Bukhari told al-Rahi that KSA has no specific candidate but urges for the election of an uncorrupt president who can save the country, local media said.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Monday openly endorsed the presidential nomination of Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh, around two weeks after Hezbollah MP Mohammed Raad announced that the party had an undeclared candidate.

Kateb chief MP Sami Gemayel met Monday with Maronite Archbishop of Antelias Antoine Abu Najem over the presidential crisis.

“The meeting was fruitful,” Gemayel said, adding that his party will do its best to prevent the election of a president who adopts a “defiance approach” that would destroy "what is left of Lebanon."

First Investigative Judge of Beirut Charbel Abou Samra on Monday scheduled a March 15 session for the interrogation of Central Bank chief Riad Salameh, his brother Raja and his assistant Marianne Hoayek, the National News Agency said.

Contract teachers rallied Monday in front of the Education Ministry and blocked roads, demanding a further salary increase and higher transport allowances.

Other public teachers returned to class, partially ending a two-month strike.

Hezbollah central council member Sheikh Nabil Qaouq on Sunday said that the “latest developments” have increased the chances for “consensus” over the presidential file.

“Our priority lies in electing a president to halt the collapse and rescue the country, but the priority of the challenge and confrontation camp is taking the country to a new adventure in order to overturn the domestic political balances," Qaouq said.