The Association of Banks in Lebanon is inclined to extend the closure of banks until Monday, al-Jadeed TV reported on Wednesday.

Quoting unnamed sources, al-Jadeed said the decision to extend the strike “came after days from a meeting that was held with caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, who advised the Association to extend the strike until a security plan for protecting banks is finalized.”

Iran has informed the Lebanese delegation in Tehran of its approval of supplying Lebanon’s with 600,000 tons of fuel over a period of five months, al-Manar TV reported.

Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mujtaba Amani meanwhile announced that “good news will be soon declared about what has been agreed on regarding Iranian fuel and cooperation in the field of electricity between the delegation of the Lebanese Energy Ministry and the relevant officials in Iran.”

Crisis-hit Lebanon hopes to adopt key reforms demanded by the International Monetary Fund for a long-delayed but urgently needed bailout before the end of next month if there is "political will," Lebanon's caretaker economy minister said Tuesday.

Amin Salam spoke to The Associated Press after meeting with an IMF delegation that has been visiting Lebanese officials since Monday. The reforms would include restructuring the country's banking system and banking secrecy laws.

Israel is preparing to activate an offshore gas field partly disputed by Lebanon, aiming to boost energy exports to Europe but risking further tensions with its northern neighbor.

Israel and Lebanon, still technically at war, have engaged in on-off U.S. mediated talks since 2020 to delineate their Mediterranean border, which could allow both parties to boost offshore natural gas exploration.

Warning that the world is in "great peril," the head of the United Nations says leaders meeting in person for the first time in three years must tackle conflicts and climate catastrophes, increasing poverty and inequality — and address divisions among major powers that have gotten worse since Russia invaded Ukraine.

In speeches and remarks leading up to the start of the leaders' meeting Tuesday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cited the "immense" task not only of saving the planet, "which is literally on fire," but of dealing with the persisting COVID-19 pandemic. He also pointed to "a lack of access to finance for developing countries to recover -- a crisis not seen in a generation" that has seen ground lost for education, health and women's rights.

Stock markets dropped again Monday, extending last week's rout as investors brace for another big rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve that they fear could drag down the global economy.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz will visit Saudi Arabia and meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as part of a Gulf trip, his spokesman said Monday, as Germany rushes to secure energy supplies.

The Lebanese pound has hit a new low against the US dollar on the black market, a drop that coincides with bank closures this week due to heists by angry depositors.

At least five banks were stormed by depositors on Friday, prompting the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL) to declare a three-day strike and caretaker Interior Minister Bassam al-Mawlawi to call for an emergency meeting of the Central Internal Security Council.

The incidents started in the morning, when a depositor carrying a gun and a jerrican of fuel withdrew his frozen savings at gunpoint from Byblos Bank in Ghazieh.

A Lebanese activist group has vowed to organize more bank heists to help people retrieve their locked savings as the country's years-long economic crisis continues to worsen.

Activists from Depositors' Outcry group accompanied Sali Hafez into a Beirut bank branch on Wednesday, and she was able to retrieve some $13,000 in her savings to fund her sister's cancer treatment.