By SARAH EL DEEB , Associated Press -- BEIRUT (AP) — The head of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group said Friday the best emergency government to deal with the country's worsening economic crisis is one that includes all political groups. Hassan Nasrallah's comments indicated there was no resolution yet on who should head an emergency government, two months after Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned Oct 29. Protests erupted Oct. 17 over proposed new taxes and spiraled into calls for the entire political elite to step down. The protesters have also said they won't accept Hariri as returning prime minister.

Consultations between President Michel Aoun and parliamentary blocs to name a new premier were expected Monday. They were postponed once before over disagreements on naming a new premier. Nasrallah's comments were also a rejection of a proposition put forward by political ally Gebran Bassil, who called for a government made up of experts and said he won't take part in one headed by Hariri. Bassil said Thursday a government picked by Hariri, according to his conditions, would be destined to fail. Hariri had said he wants a government without political groups, made up of technocrats alone. “The patriotic duty calls for everyone to take responsibility, to take part and for all to offer concessions,” Nasrallah said in an 70-minute speech in which he characterized the situation in Lebanon as dire. “How can a government from one group deal with a crisis of this nature?” He said any “salvation government would have to take unpopular measures,” and can't afford to engage in disagreements with other political parties.

by theguardian.com -- Julian Borger in Washington -- US intelligence agencies will be given a month to make a formal declaration on whether the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was responsible for the murder of the Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi. The annual military spending bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), was passed by a large majority in the House of Representatives on Wednesday and is expected to be approved by the Senate next week before being signed into law by Donald Trump. In negotiations before the NDAA’s passage, sections stipulating that Khashoggi’s murderers be subject to punitive measures were stripped from the bill, on the insistence of the White House – as were clauses that would have cut US support for the Saudi war in Yemen.

According to the New York Times, the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, took a leading role in negotiations on behalf of the White House, and was insistent that the punitive clauses on Saudi Arabia should be removed. But the final version of the bill retained language requiring the director of national intelligence (DNI) to present a formal determination within 30 days on who was responsible for the murder and dismemberment of Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October last year. In April, the US barred entry to 16 Saudis for their role in the murder plot, including one of the crown prince’s closest aides, Saud al-Qahtani. This week, the state department added the former Saudi consul general in Istanbul, Mohammed al-Otaibi.

Asharq Al-Awsat — The Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) will not join a new government under the terms insisted on by caretaker Prime …

The Daily Star — BEIRUT: Future Movement MP Hadi Hobeish filed a lawsuit against Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Ghada Aoun Thursday as the latter …