A stolen car raised suspicions Tuesday near the presidential palace in Baabda.

“A patrol from the Republican Guard Brigade that was on a routine mission detected a suspicious car parked on the road leading to the Baabda Palace,” state-run National News Agency said.

The International Support Group for Lebanon (ISG) met on August 3, on the eve of the anniversary of the tragic explosions at the port of Beirut on 4 August 2020.

All members expressed their solidarity with the families of the victims, and with those whose lives and livelihoods have been affected.

Ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Tuesday, in a statement on the eve of the first anniversary of the Beirut port blast, that “the devastating blast isn’t a platform for verbal contests and political exploitation of the afflicted citizens’ grief.”

He warned against “flooding the judicial track with populist directives to conceal the truth.”

Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab said Tuesday, in a statement on the eve of the first anniversary of the Beirut port blast, that the facts of the blast cannot be completely revealed “without clear answers to fundamental questions.”

Diab inquired: “Who brought the ammonium nitrate and why? How and why did it stay for years? And how did the explosion happen?”

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati warned Monday after meeting President Michel Aoun in Baabda that the timeframe for the cabinet's formation is “not open-ended.”

Former army chief Jean Qahwaji has distanced himself from remarks voiced by his lawyer about the ammonium nitrate shipment that exploded at Beirut’s port.

“The remarks of my lawyer Antoine Toubia, in which he accused Hizbullah of covering up for the smuggling of ammonium nitrates to Syria, do not represent me and they were a personal analysis by him,” Qahwaji said in a TV interview.

Head of the Free Patriotic Movement Jebran Bassil called on Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to hold a session to lift immunities on August 4.

Bassil said in a press conference held Monday In Sin el-Fil that the Beirut port blast is a "security-related act" and is not limited to workplace negligence. It outlines “the negligence, the corruption and the chaos in the country."

Circles close to PM-designate Najib Miqati have ruled out chances of “progress” in the government formation process between President Michel Aoun and Miqati, according to media reports.

The sources told the PSP's al-Anbaa news portal, in remarks published Monday, that the Free Patriotic Movement’s intentions are not “right,” otherwise the government would have been formed since the first meeting between Aoun and Miqati.

The Syndicate of Owners of Restaurants, Cafes, Nightclubs and Patisseries announced Monday in a statement that it recommends the tourist establishments to close on the first anniversary of the Beirut port explosion on August 4.

The syndicate stressed its solidarity with “the martyrs and the injured and their families” and also “with the tourism sector” affected by the Beirut port blast.

President Michel Aoun followed up Sunday on the “tragic security incidents” in the area of Khalde, asking the army to take instant measures to restore calm, the Presidency said.