The finance, health, labor and social affairs parliamentary committees held a joint session Tuesday to study a draft law for signing a loan treaty with the World Bank aimed at financing an emergency plan for the support of the country’s poorest and most vulnerable families.

Russia reportedly expressed willingness to provide Lebanon with donations of its Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, MP Amal Abou Zeid told President Michel Aoun on Tuesday said the National News Agency.

Since Lebanon launched its inoculation campaign against Covid-19 virus on Sunday, around “535,000 individuals” have registered to get the vaccine, said Ali Romani, IT Project Manager at the Ministry of Health and programmer of the vaccination platform.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement MP Mohammed Hajjar said Tuesday that PM-designate Saad Hariri “is determined to have a government formed” in Lebanon, despite a volley of words between him and the team of the Presidency that disappointed many about a close lineup.

After a volley of words between the teams of the President and PM-designate over the formation of a cabinet, Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is expected to make a speech Tuesday to “dial down” the political rhetoric, the electronic al-Anbaa daily reported.

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced in a statement Monday that a telephone conversation took place between Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Presidential Special Envoy for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov.

The Amal Movement on Monday said that Speaker Nabih Berri’s initiative for resolving the governmental crisis remains on the table.

A war of words erupted Monday between President Michel Aoun’s aide Salim Jreissati and PM-designate Saad Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal Movement.

Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat received an invitation to visit Moscow from Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Presidential Special Envoy for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov, a statement released by the PSP press office said on Monday.

The lead investigator into the Beirut port explosion Judge Fadi Sawwan summoned former minister of public works Youssef Fenianos for questioning on Thursday, the National News Agency reported on Monday.

Fenianos will appear before Sawwan as a defendant in the August 4 blast, said the Agency.