Lebanon’s failure to find a solution for its chronic electricity crisis was attributed to “pressures exerted by owners of generators who control 50 percent of the Lebanese market and represent a pressure group within the parliament,” the pan-Arab al-Hayat reported on Friday.

AMAL Movement Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement, traded new jibes on Thursday, but this time against the backdrop of a conference regarding expatriates voting.

The Internal Security Forces arrested a fake medical practitioner in Beirut’s neighborhood of Minet el-Hosn, after tricking hospital patients and stealing their belongings, the National News Agency reported on Thursday.

General Security chief Maj.Gen. Abbas Ibrahim said Thursday that many more displaced Syrians will be returning back to Syria in the future, now that the “situation has stabilized in several Syrian regions,” al-Joumhouria daily reported.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday sent his “best wishes” to Israelis and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Israel marked 70 years since its creation.

“Best wishes to Prime Minister @Netanyahu and all of the people of Israel on the 70th Anniversary of your Great Independence. We have no better friends anywhere,” Trump tweeted.

Gen. Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), is expected to arrive in Beirut on Friday leading a “large” delegation of senior aides, al-Joumhouria daily reported Wednesday.

Votel’s visit carries a “special significance,” and comes after the Rome II conference that was held on March 14 and 15, dedicated to strengthening the capabilities of the Lebanese army, security and military services, said the daily.

Fears have started mounting after reports alleging that numerous violations against the electoral law were detected, in addition to “clientelist vote buying and abuse of government resources,” as the country gears up for its first general elections in nine years, media reports said Tuesday.

Dispute between AMAL Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement resurfaced again to “unprecedented levels,” following statements made by Foreign Minister and FPM chief Jebran Bassil during an electoral campaign visit to Lebanon’s (Shiite majority) South area over the weekend, Saudi daily Asharq al-Awsat reported Tuesday.

After the Western strike on Syria at dawn on Saturday, President Michel Aoun said the attack "will not contribute" to a political solution for the Syrian crisis, stressing that Lebanon “refuses hostility against Arab states no matter what the reasons were.”

The AMAL Movement politburo issued a statement Saturday, condemning the joint Western attack at Syria, and describing it as “flagrant violation of international law, and a blatant attack on the Syrian state, the founding member of the United Nations.”