French Special Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian met Wednesday with Kataeb leader Sami Gemayel as he visits Lebanon to prepare for a conference to support the Lebanese Army.

Le Drian arrived Monday in Beirut and met with President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Foreign Minister Joseph Rajji, Army chief Rodolphe Haykal, former PSP leader Walid Jumblat, and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea.

Every evening as the sun drops behind Beirut's concrete skyline, Loubna Hamdan steps onto her rooftop and whistles. A flutter of wings follows. Dozens of pigeons — white, speckled, chestnut, black — circle above her, catching the day's last light. Here, the 36-year-old office worker has found an unexpected refuge.

Hamdan never imagined she would keep pigeons. The interest began a decade ago through her husband, Ibrahim Ammar, who has raised birds since childhood. She admired how calmly they settled on him and how he always sensed when one was missing.

The U.S. has still not agreed to a visit by Lebanon's President and Army chief, al-Akhbar newspaper said Tuesday.

The pro-Hezbollah daily said that the U.S. would rather exert more pressure on Lebanon and would not welcome President Joseph Aoun and Army chief Joseph Haykal before Lebanon meets the American conditions.

Tehran has approved the handover of Hezbollah’s medium- and heavy-caliber weapons to the Lebanese Army and the transfer of the precision-guided missiles to Iraq, informed sources said.

“The discussion has reached the point of the side that will manage these missiles in Iraq and whether it will be the Iraqi army or the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF),” the sources told the Progressive Socialist Party’s al-Anbaa news portal in remarks published Tuesday.

Israeli forces entered overnight into Tuesday the southern border towns of al-Khiam, Odaisseh, and Aita al-Shaab.

Local media reports said the soldiers detonated several buildings in Wadi al-Asafir in al-Khiam and a house in Odaisseh.

Supporters of Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa staged motorbike and car rallies across Lebanon overnight to mark the first anniversary of the ouster of Bashar al-Assad at the hands of an Islamist-led uprising.

The rallies sparked tensions and led to clashes in some areas, prompting an intervention by the Lebanese Army.

President Joseph Aoun headed Tuesday to Oman, as he reportedly intensifies diplomacy with Arab and international countries to prevent a possible escalation.

Pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper said Oman represents a point of intersection between the United States, Iran, and the Gulf States, making it a good place for negotiations concerning the Lebanese file.

French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian met Tuesday with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Army chief Rodolphe Haykal and former PSP leader Walid Jumblat, as Lebanon moves towards direct negotiations with Israel.

French Ambassador to Lebanon Hervé Magro, who attended the talks, said the meeting with Berri was "very good".

Israel's military said it carried out strikes on southern Lebanon on Tuesday, targeting a training compound and other sites operated by Hezbollah.

"A short while ago, the IDF (Israeli military) struck infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization in several areas in southern Lebanon," it said in a statement.

Contacts are underway between Baabda and Washington to arrange an official visit by President Joseph Aoun to the White House to meet with President Donald Trump at the beginning of the new year, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Monday.

Aoun is scheduled to visit the Sultanate of Oman on Tuesday at the invitation of Sultan Haitham bin Tariq, accompanied by a number of ministers.