Outgoing Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh has stressed that he will not stay in his post after his term expires on July 31, as he warned against abolishing the Sayarfa exchange platform in an abrupt manner.

“I declared a year ago that this would be my last term at the Banque du Liban and in a few days I will turn a page of my life,” Salameh said in an overnight interview on LBCI television.

French presidential envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian met Thursday with Hezbollah MP Mohammed Raad in Haret Hreik and with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri for a second time in Ain el-Tineh.

Le Drian arrived Tuesday in Lebanon to help resolve divisions that have left the presidency vacant for nearly nine months and met with Berri, who said that the meeting was "good" and that "an opening has pierced through" Lebanon's power vacuum.

A cabinet session to appoint a new central bank governor was cancelled Thursday due to a lack of quorum.

Only several ministers showed up at the Grand Serail and held a consultation meeting.

The Justice Ministry announced Wednesday that it is preparing to submit to the State Shura Council a request for naming an interim director for the Central Bank, days before the expiry of the term of long-serving Governor Riad Salameh.

The Ministry said its move comes “in light of the developments that might arise over the next two days, to avoid any vacuum in the Central Bank’s governor post and to secure the proper functioning of the financial and monetary facility.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Wednesday after meeting French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian in Maarab that the French diplomat did not discuss presidential names with him.

"We did not discuss new names," Geagea said, stressing that the talks are confidential.

French presidential envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian’s talks with Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Wednesday were characterized by “positive honesty,” the FPM's media department said.

“The French envoy proposed an idea backed by the five nations that had recently met in Doha, under which Le Drian would return in September to restart consultations, from square one and within a rapid and specific timeframe, in order to agree the presidential program that Lebanon needs,” the FPM added.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati met Wednesday morning with central bank vice-governors, Wassim Mansouri, Bashir Yakzan, Salim Chahine and Alexander Mouradian, in an attempt to find a solution to a looming leadership crisis at the central bank.

Minister of Finance Youssef Khalil, who attended the meeting, said that so far the vice-governors are not inclined to resign.

French special presidential envoy for Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian arrived Tuesday in Beirut on a several-day official visit.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri met tuesday with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Ain el-Tineh and discussed the looming leadership crisis at the central bank.

Berri stressed during the talks "the need to hold a Cabinet session to appoint a new Central Bank governor."

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Tuesday that his party is fighting a battle, along with its allies, "to win back the country from its hijackers."

"If the Axis of Defiance manages to take control of the presidency, this would lead to a continued deterioration of the economic and financial situations and would aggravate the suffering of the Lebanese," Geagea added.