On the eve of the visit to Speaker Nabih Berri by President Joseph Aoun’s adviser Andre Rahal, the head of Hezbollah’s Liaison and Coordination Unit Wafiq Safa visited the Baabda Palace along with Hezbollah official Ahmad Mhanna, ad-Diyar newspaper reported on Friday.

After their visit to Beirut, U.S. envoys Tom Barrack and Morgan Ortagus met in Paris with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and the talks were not positive, seeing as Dermer categorically rejected adding Lebanon’s eight remarks to the U.S. paper, informed sources said.

The U.S. delegation then suggested that Israel make a goodwill gesture through releasing a number of Lebanese captives and withdrawing from one of the occupied points, but Dermer strongly rejected that and stressed that Israel wants “serious actions” from Lebanon and that it will carry on with its plans for the northern front, the sources told ad-Diyar newspaper in remarks published Friday.

President Joseph Aoun reassured Friday that the situation on the Lebanese-Syrian border is under control and that the Lebanese Army maintains “full readiness” there.

The army is “performing its missions competently and keenly, in order to spread calm and serenity among the people,” Aoun added, in a meeting with ex-MP Emile Rahme.

The release of Arab Israeli citizen Salah Abu Hussein by Lebanon on Thursday, after he spent around a year in Lebanese prisons, is part of “a course that will unfold in the coming days,” prominent sources told al-Akhbar newspaper in remarks published Friday.

The move is linked to “promises presented by U.S. envoy Tom Barrack about a step that the Israeli government will make in return for the (Lebanese) government’s decision to disarm the resistance (Hezbollah),” the sources said.

President Joseph Aoun’s adviser Brig. Gen. Andre Rahal met Friday in Beirut’s southern suburbs with MP Mohammad Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea made a solidarity visit to Prime Minister Nawaf Salam at the Grand Serail on Friday, in the wake of the campaign launched against the premier over the government’s latest decisions on the disarmament of all armed groups in the country.

One person was killed Friday in an Israeli drone strike on the southern border town of Aita al-Shaab, the Health Ministry said.

Despite a ceasefire reached in late November, Israel has kept carrying out almost daily strikes on Lebanon, especially on its south.

The U.S. has asked Israel to reduce its military action in Lebanon after the Lebanese government decided last week to disarm Hezbollah by the year end, Axios said.

The American news portal reported that the Trump administration thinks reciprocal steps by Israel would encourage Lebanon to follow through. It said the U.S. has asked Israel to consider withdrawing from one of five hills its troops are occupying in south Lebanon and to significantly reduce "non-urgent" air strikes for a few weeks to show willingness to cooperate with the Lebanese effort.

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack has hailed steps to begin disarming groups operating in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Barrack congratulated Thursday the government and the Palestinian Fatah movement on their "agreement on voluntary disarmament in Beirut camps, a great accomplishment as a result of the bold action recently taken by the Lebanese Council of Ministers. A historic step toward unity and stability, showing true commitment to peace and cooperation."

Pope Leo XIV is planning to visit Lebanon this year on his first foreign visit, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi said, a trip that would give history's first American pope a chance to speak in broad terms about peace in the Middle East and the plight of Christians there.

A visit to Lebanon could be the second leg of a planned visit to Turkey at the end of November to commemorate an important anniversary with the Orthodox Church.