Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati asked Monday caretaker ministers Nasser Yassin and Ali Hamieh to contact the Turkish and Syrian authorities in order to provide emergency aid after the powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake that rocked southeastern Turkey and northern Syria early Monday.

Mikati said, before a cabinet session, that Lebanon might send a rescue force from the army and the civil defense to Turkey to provide emergency relief to the populations on the ground.

The most powerful earthquake in nearly a century struck Turkey and Syria early Monday, killing over 1,200 people in their sleep, leveling buildings and causing tremors felt as far away as Iraq.

The 7.8-magnitude quake wiped out entire sections of major Turkish cities in a restless region filled with millions of people who have fled the civil war in Syria and other conflicts.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday accused the country’s lawmakers of “high treason” for failing to elect a new president.

Security forces have arrested a number of notorious money changers who are accused of currency speculation operations in a wave of raids across Lebanon.

The head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, on Saturday warned that his party’s “enemies” are “trying to turn the presidential juncture in Lebanon into a platform for taking hold of a president who would implement their policies and continue their scheme of tightening the noose on the Resistance.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Saturday stressed “the need for everyone to commit to finalizing the presidential juncture, instead of obstructing it with the aim of imposing a candidate wanted by the obstructing party.”

Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel on Friday voiced strongly-worded stances against Hezbollah and vowed to block the presidential vote if “the other camp decides to elect a president who would cover up for Hezbollah’s arms for six more years.”

“We will not be dragged into weapons because we know the value of blood, martyrs and war,” Gemayel said in a speech at Kataeb’s 32nd Congress.

The Brazilian Ambassador to Lebanon Tarcísio Costa has participated in a ceremony alongside General Mohammad Kheir, head of the High Relief Committee (HRC) and representatives of Lebanese NGOs, marking the delivery of a Brazilian humanitarian donation of 38 water purifiers to Lebanon.

"The Embassy of Brazil in Lebanon is proud to announce that the Brazilian government has donated, on a humanitarian basis, solar-powered water purifiers to Lebanon," the embassy said in a statement.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Thursday hailed a statement issued by the Christian spiritual leaders in Lebanon, saying “it delineates a promising course and opens the door to resolving the presidential crisis on the basis of partnership and national balance.”

“Since last summer, we have been the first to respond to this existential appeal and we will still be the first. This is what I stressed to Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in my latest visit to him and I hope everyone will respond to this call,” Bassil added.

A Hezbollah parliamentary delegation led by MP Mohammed Raad on Thursday held talks in Rabieh with ex-president and Free Patriotic Movement founder Michel Aoun.

During the meeting, Aoun stressed “the importance of national partnership, the continuation of the state building project, the fight against corruption and the protection of citizens’ rights,” the National News Agency said.