Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Wednesday that “Hezbollah’s presence has become more necessary to Lebanon than water and bread.”

“Hezbollah has been a rescuer of the Lebanese people,” the adviser suggested.

Lebanon and Cyprus on Wednesday signed a treaty to demarcate their maritime border, with the Cypriot president calling it a “strategic achievement that sends a strong message.”

The treaty ends an almost 20-year impasse that had stalled some oil and gas exploration in the Mediterranean Sea, as Europe seeks alternatives to Russian fuel.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has said that Israel's occupation of five hills in south Lebanon is obstructing Hezbollah's disarmament, as he called for unity among Christians and for keeping Lebanon out from regional conflicts.

In an interview Tuesday with al-Jadeed, al-Rahi praised President Joseph Aoun and Army chief Rodolphe Haykal. "Aoun is making diplomatic efforts and Haykal is doing a great job," he said, explaining that he is against pressuring the army to disarm Hezbollah by force.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday warned there would be "no calm" in Lebanon if Israel's security was not guaranteed, as Israeli forces intensify operations despite a year-old ceasefire with Hezbollah.

"We will not allow any threats against the inhabitants of the north, and maximum enforcement will continue and even intensify," Katz told the Israeli parliament.

Pope Leo XIV told journalists Tuesday at Castel Gandolfo in Italy that he is "very happy to be able to visit Lebanon."

Leo XIV said that Israel's strike on Beirut's southern suburb this weekend is a serious cause for concern, urging everyone to find ways to abandon the use of weapons as a means of solving problems.

Pope Leo XIV is embarking on his first foreign trip, a pilgrimage to Turkey and Lebanon that would be delicate under any circumstances but is even more fraught given Mideast tensions and the media glare that will document history's first American pope on the road.

Leo is fulfilling a trip Pope Francis planned to make, to mark an important anniversary with the Orthodox church in Turkey. In Lebanon, he'll try to boost a long-suffering Christian community as well as Lebanese of all faiths who are still demanding justice over the 2020 Beirut port blast.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty met Wednesday in Beirut with President Joseph Aoun, as Israel escalated its attacks on Lebanon.

After the meeting, Abdelatty said Egypt would not spare any effort to prevent an escalation in Lebanon and voiced his country's support for Lebanon and President Aoun and for the government's decision to disarm Hezbollah.

U.S. President Donald Trump has said that Lebanon is at a crossroad and has now a chance to draw a path to prosperity and stability.

In a letter sent to President Joseph Aoun, on the occasion of Lebanon's Independence Day, Trump said he hopes to "deepen the U.S. partnership" with Lebanon.

Lebanese Forces MP Georges Adwan criticized Tuesday Prime Minister Nawaf Salam for taking ten days to sign an urgent draft law -- that allows a large Lebanese diaspora to vote for the 128 seats in the upcoming parliamentary elections -- and ten other days to send it to parliament.

Earlier this month, cabinet approved to send the draft law demanding the amendment to Parliament, after Speaker Nabih Berri refused to discuss it in a legislative session, prompting the LF and Kataeb MPs to boycott it.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri considered the strike that killed Sunday Hezbollah's top military chief in Haret Hreik "an extremely dangerous escalation."

In an interview published Tuesday in al-Joumhouria newspaper, Berri said that Beirut and its southern suburb are back to the circle of Israeli targeting, adding that the strike shows that there are no real guarantees for protecting the capital and its suburb and that Israel can do whatever it wants, without any accountability.