Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Thursday called on Iran to release Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese IT expert and advocate of Internet freedom who has been sentenced in Tehran to ten years in jail on espionage-related charges, media reports said.

Zakka has a green card and was a permanent resident of the United States.

A clash broke out on Thursday at the Mieh Mieh Palestinian refugee camp near the southern city of Sidon, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The agency said the clash erupted in the camp's al-Wadi neighborhood between members of the Fatah Movement and members of the al-Kaoush family.

Iran's foreign minister on Thursday lashed out on Twitter at the US and Saudi Arabia for imposing sanctions on leaders of its Lebanese ally Hizbullah. 

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi sounded the alarm over a looming education crisis following the wage increase of Lebanon's private school teachers, as he called for devising plans that make Lebanese youth dismiss thoughts of emigration, the National News Agency reported on Thursday.

Central Bank (BDL) Governor Riad Salameh said on Thursday that staging the parliamentary elections has had a positive impact in the international and domestic financial circles.

“The reactions were good. Holding the elections has had a positive effect in financial circles,” Salameh told President Michel Aoun during their meeting at Baabda Palace.

A new leaf in relations has been turned over between the Lebanese Forces and al-Mustaqbal Movement following the Geagea-Hariri meeting at the latter’s residence early this week, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday.

The United States and the Arab Gulf countries on Wednesday imposed new sanctions targeting Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, his deputy Sheikh Naim Qassem and other senior officials of the Iran-backed Lebanese group.

“Today, the seven member nations of the Terrorist Financing and Targeting Center (TFTC) took significant actions to disrupt an Iranian-backed terrorist group by designating the senior leadership of Lebanese Hizbullah,” the U.S. Treasury said in a statement.

Hizbullah's Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc on Wednesday called for the re-election of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to his post, as it urged a quick cabinet formation process.

In a statement issued after its weekly meeting, the bloc noted that the upcoming period requires addressing “the economic and social affairs” and “a lot of vigilance, wisdom and firm stances.”

Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Wednesday boasted that his government made several “achievements” during its term.

“This government has made achievements that previous government had failed to make and this is due to the election of President (Michel) Aoun,” Hariri said during a cabinet session which could be his government's last.

A senior Sunni cleric in Lebanon has called on all Muslims to wage jihad, or holy war, in support of the Palestinians after the U.S. decision to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Mohammed Rashid Qabbani, the former top Sunni religious authority, or Grand Mufti, in Lebanon, also said it is not sanctioned religiously for the Palestinians or any Arab or Muslim country to "surrender, reconcile or make peace deals or give up any inch" of historic Palestine.