Lebanon and Syria will form two committees to decide the fate of the nearly 2,000 Syrian prisoners held in Lebanese jails, locate Lebanese nationals missing in Syria for years and settle the shared unmarked border, judicial and security officials said.

Monday's announcement came as a Syrian delegation, which included two former Cabinet ministers and the head of Syria's National Commission for Missing Persons, visited Beirut, a first since insurgent groups overthrew Syrian President Bashar Assad's government in early December.

Since the fall of Bashar Assad's government in December, some 850,000 Syrian refugees have returned home from neighboring countries and the figure could reach 1 million in the coming weeks, a top official with the U.N. refugee agency said Monday.

Deputy High Commissioner of UNHCR Kelly T. Clements told The Associated Press in Damascus that about 1.7 million people who were internally displaced during the 14-year-old conflict have returned to their communities as the interim central government now controls large parts of Syria.

MP Melhem Riachi of the Lebanese Forces has said that “the positive point in Speaker Nabih Berri’s speech (on Sunday) was his talk about a Shiite desire for resolving the issue of arms.”

“The president and the prime minister must capitalize on this development,” Riachi said in an interview with Radio Free Lebanon.

Diplomatic efforts to cool political tensions are ongoing, ahead of a Cabinet session that will discuss Friday a plan prepared by the army to implement the state's monopoly on arms, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper said Monday.

The daily quoted a minister as saying that Amal and Hezbollah's ministers will attend Friday's session, securing a "full quorum", and that Hezbollah has no intention to boycott it and call for street protests on Friday.

Lebanon's Central Bank is trying to address the issue of Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Qard Al-Hasan financial institution, Finance Minister Yassin Jaber told Saudi news interactive channel al-Hadath.

In July, the Central Bank prohibited all licensed financial institutions in Lebanon from dealing directly or indirectly with unlicensed entities and listed Al-Qard Al-Hassan as an example. The bank had issued similar circulars in the past but this was the first time it mentioned Al-Qard Al-Hassan by name.

Rockets, rocket launchers and sniper rifles bound for Lebanon have been seized in Homs’ Qusayr region near the Lebanese border, the Syrian interior ministry said on Monday.

Syrian security forces in Homs had on August 19 seized a truck loaded with Grad-type rockets that was allegedly headed for Lebanon, Syrian state media reported at the time.

Tasked by French President Emmanuel Macron, French special envoy to Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian will visit Beirut in the next few days to prepare for a Lebanon reconstruction conference and another for assisting the Lebanese Army, the French ambassador said.

Le Drian will also discuss the latest developments with the country’s leaders, French Ambassador to Lebanon Herve Magro told President Joseph Aoun in a meeting on Monday, the Lebanese Presidency said.

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack is still pressing Israel to obtain a final answer regarding the so-called step-for-step proposals related to Hezbollah’s disarmament and Israel’s withdrawal from south Lebanon, Lebanese media reports said.

“The Lebanese-American contacts are also still ongoing, although in a low-intensity manner,” al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Monday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the Israeli army is striking Hezbollah “whenever it tries to raise its head,” in reference to the daily strikes in Lebanon that have continued despite the ceasefire reached in November last year.

Netanyahu was listing his government’s “achievements” in the region since Hamas’ October 7 attacks, in a video addressed to the Israeli opposition.

Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah, called on Sunday for dialogue over its weapons, days before the government is expected to approve an army plan to disarm the group.

Months after Hezbollah's devastating war with Israel and under heavy U.S. pressure, Lebanon's government this month tasked the army with drawing up a plan to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year.