An official French auditor of the Paris I, II and III conferences on Lebanon, who also took part in the latest CEDRE conference, said Lebanon is plagued with “unprecedented corruption” describing its public debt as a “cancerous situation,” the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily reported on Monday.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said there will be a "big price to pay" after what he called a "mindless CHEMICAL attack" in Syria, allegedly involving chlorine gas.

AMAL Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil and Public Works and Transport Minister Youssef Fenianos “boycotted” the Lebanese Diaspora Energy conference in Paris, inaugurated by Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the National News Agency said Saturday.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Saturday urged the Lebanese to refrain from casting votes in favor of parties who abstain from introducing reforms they once vowed to do.

Addressing the Lebanese community at the opening of the Lebanese Diaspora Energy conference for Europe in Paris, Hariri said: “You are our secret weapon. You must as well threaten us into introducing reforms, otherwise you may refrain from voting for us.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Saturday, hailed the outcome and reforms of an international donor conference in France on Lebanon, but at the same time said he was concerned that “corruption would impede application of reforms.”

Prime Minister Saad Hariri contacted President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri from Paris, and “congratulated” them on the “success” of the CEDRE conference that concluded Friday raising billions of dollars aimed at averting an economic fallout in Lebanon, Hariri's media office said.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed from Paris on Friday that Lebanon needs the support of the international community to stave off an economic collapse and revamp economic development that dwindled enormously due to the influx of refugees.

“Lebanon is a tiny country facing enormous challenges. Lebanon's economy has recorded an average annual growth rate of 8 percent in the three years preceding the Syrian crisis. With the war in Syria, and massive displacement of Syrians to Lebanon, this growth has collapsed to an annual rate of 1 percent,” said Hariri at the opening of CEDRE conference from the French capital.

One month before Lebanon holds its legislative elections, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq and the Central Internal Security Council decided to deploy 20,000 military and security members over 7000 poll stations around the country as part of a security plan on election day, al-Joumhouria daily reported Friday.

Mashnouq chaired an extraordinary meeting of the Central Internal Security Council on Thursday and discussed the security plan for the May 6 elections to ensure coordination among security apparatuses.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea said a new leaf of relations has been turned with al-Mustaqbal Movement leader and Prime Minister Saad Hariri following Tuesday's meeting, assuring that ties have “never been completely broken” between them.

While political circles monitor the atmosphere of meetings held recently by Saudi royal envoy Nizar al-Aloula in Lebanon, a closed-door meeting between him and Saudi charge d'affaires Walid al-Bukhari, PM Saad Hariri, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat caught the public attention as relations have been strained between the Lebanese parties.