Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri extended Christmas greetings Thursday to the Lebanese, stressing that “we should get inspired from Christmas’ values.”

“To deserve Christmas and to live it, we should get rid of selfishness and grudges,” Berri said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on Lebanon’s political leaders to “work together to implement reforms,” in tweets that follow his official visit to Lebanon. work together to implement reforms

The Higher Defense Council on Wednesday decided to extend the so-called Covid-19 state of general mobilization until March 31.

The Council also asked military and security agencies to maintain full preparedness to “secure a safe holidays period.”

President Michel Aoun on Wednesday said the boycott of Cabinet sessions by Hizbullah and the Amal Movement is “unacceptable,” noting that any objections should be addressed through institutions.

“Cabinet must convene and I’m not obliged to alone sign any resolution,” Aoun said at a Higher Defense Council meeting.

Head of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblat lauded the Constitutional Council’s ruling, saying that it is a failure for the Free Patriotic Movement.

"The FPM has failed, especially in its hope to restrict the voting of expatriates,” Jumblat said in a press interview.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Tuesday lashed out at Hizbullah and the Amal Movement over the Constitutional Council’s failure to issue a ruling on an appeal filed by the FPM against the electoral law’s amendments.

“The Constitutional Council has committed suicide,” Bassil said in a televised address.

As part of his visit to Lebanon to show the United Nations’ "solidarity with the country and its people," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday visited UNIFIL Headquarters in south Lebanon and met with peacekeepers, UNIFIL said.

Head of Mission and Force Commander Major General Stefano Del Col received the U.N. chief and briefed him on the mission’s work in the South.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that Hizbullah must become a political party, while noting that Lebanon needs a “new social contract” that would lead to the rebuilding of the middle class that has been ravaged by the country’s brutal economic and financial crisis.

Guterres, who is on a four-day visit to Lebanon, voiced his remarks in an interview with Saudi daily Asharq al-Awsat that was published Tuesday evening.

MP George Adwan of the Lebanese Forces on Tuesday lauded the Constitutional Council for “staying out of (political) deals,” shortly after the Council announced that it failed to issue a ruling on an appeal filed by the Free Patriotic Movement against the electoral law’s amendments.

“The (Council’s) members maintained their stance,” Adwan added, noting that “the constitutional and legal right of non-residents to vote for 128 seats has triumphed.”

Baabda sources on Tuesday described as a “flop” the Constitutional Council’s failure to issue a ruling on the Free Patriotic Movement’s appeal against the electoral law’s amendments.

“President Michel Aoun had not requested anything” from the Council, the sources told LBCI television.