Lebanon’s parliament on Monday failed for the fourth time to elect a new president for the country, only a week away from the expiry of President Michel Aoun’s term.

Out of 128 MPs, only 114 attended the vote’s first round.

Lebanon and Israel will sign a U.S.-brokered maritime border demarcation deal on Thursday, U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein said.

"We're going to have a deal," Hochstein told CNN, adding that it will "hopefully" be signed this Thursday.

The dollar exchange rate dropped from LBP 40,600 to 36,000 on the black market overnight, shortly after Central Bank Governor Riad Salamah said in a statement that the Central Bank would stop buying dollars on the Sayrafa platform as of Tuesday.

The unofficial exchange rate later surged to LBP 37,000.

The Israeli army said Monday it has thwarted a drug and weapon smuggling attempt from Lebanese territory into Israel overnight.

"A suspect was apprehended and two handguns and 30kg of drugs were confiscated," the Israeli army stated on twitter.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday said the political forces that seek presidential vacuum would be comitting "national treason."

The Presidency on Sunday dismissed as "totally baseless" media reports claiming that President Michel Aoun intends to sign "a decree accepting the government's resignation."

President Michel Aoun said Friday that he will continue his work after the end of his presidential term on October 31.

“Our work will be better,” Aoun told a delegation from the National Commission For Lebanese Women.

The Presidency’s press office stressed Friday that “what has been achieved as to the demarcation of the southern sea border is the result of a Lebanese decision that reflects the unity of the Lebanese stance and the result of tough and difficult negotiations that were led by the Lebanese negotiating team with the U.S. mediator.”

“During the negotiations, Lebanon did not offer any concessions and it did not bow to any bargains, swaps, ‘deals’ or the wills of foreign nations,” the press office added, dismissing recent media reports that have claimed otherwise.

MP Ashraf Rifi prayed on Friday at the Khalde Mosque before moving to the house of the father of Hassan Ghoson, who had been slain in clashes with Hezbollah-linked gunmen.

“The incidents that happened in Khalde were in defense of the residents, Lebanon and all Sunnis in Lebanon,” Rifi said.

Caretaker Finance Minister Youssef al-Khalil on Friday defended himself in the face of accusations blaming him for blocking a judicial appointments decree that would allow the probe into the Beirut port blast to resume.

“Youssef al-Khalil wants justice for the port’s victims and for their families. He wants it yesterday rather than today and today rather than tomorrow. It would have been easy for me to sign the draft decree and claim false heroism by sending the time bomb to the premier and the president, seeing as their signatures are also needed,” Khalil said at a press conference.