(Reuters) By Maya Gebeily, Timour Azhari and Laila Bassam - Lebanon's government foresees cancelling "a large part" of the central bank's foreign currency obligations to commercial banks and dissolving non-viable banks by November, according to a financial recovery plan passed by the Cabinet on Friday. The document, seen by Reuters and verified as accurate by a minister, was passed by the Cabinet in its final session hours before losing decision-making powers, following the election of a new parliament on May 15.

It includes several measures that are prerequisites to unlock funds from a preliminary deal with the International Monetary Fund agreed in April that could help pull the country out of a three-year financial meltdown. Deputy Prime Minister Saade Chami said approval of the plan was a "step forward" but that Lebanon's newly-elected parliament must "quickly" adopt a number of the IMF prior actions, such as amendments to banking secrecy regulations and a capital controls bill that lawmakers have repeatedly failed to endorse. "We can put things on paper but we have to ensure whatever we committed to is being executed in the future," Chami said. "I cannot predict whether they will do it or not, whether there is a political will to do it."

By Nada Homsi -- .thenationalnews.com -- The Lebanese Forces say it is the largest Christian party in parliament for the first time — but they are not the only ones to make the claim. Their rivals, the Hezbollah-allied Free Patriotic Movement, have long been the largest Christian bloc and say they retained the majority. The competing claims appear to set the battle lines ahead of the presidential election in October when MPs have the often contentious vote for Lebanon's highest-ranking Christian official. Although alliances will likely shift and settle once the new parliament convenes and begins its work, the electoral results show a lead for the Lebanese Forces, who scored 22 seats to the Free Patriotic Movement's 18. Ultimately, it was not the startling upset the Lebanese Forces had hoped for and with only four seats separating the two parties.

More broadly, the picture is repeated. The pro-Hezbollah parties, including Free Patriotic Movement, scored 59 seats — five short of a majority in the 128 seat cross-confessional parliament. While the pro-Hezbollah faction is a generally cohesive alliance, the groups that now make up the majority of seats are an array of parties like the Lebanese Forces, smaller factions, independents and the emerging opposition groups who gained 13 seats who have no such consensus of views.

Bassil claims Free Patriotic Movement still top

Despite the numbers appearing to show the Lebanese Forces' marginal lead among Christian parties — and its party head Samir Geagea declaring the victory — Free Patriotic Movement head Gebran Bassil also said they had remained the largest Christian bloc. However, he said there were more important things to work on than squabbling about winners and losers. “The truth is that today is not the time to flex about who has the majority,” he said. “It’s time to work hard and get results to fix the country.” While the Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies, of which the Free Patriotic Movement is a major partner, suffered losses compared to the 2018 elections, the most startling development was the unprecedented 12 seats won by civil society opposition groups.

Lebanon election results 2022 in full: which candidates and parties won?

by business-standard.com — A new $10 million grant will help Lebanon mitigate the environmental and health impacts of the Beirut port explosions …

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday issued new Hezbollah-related sanctions, designating Lebanese businessman and the Iran-backed group’s financial facilitator, …