Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has “dropped his mask” and “let no one dream of reaching a moment when Lebanon would have a supreme guide,” Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has said.

“Which Lebanese constitution article stipulates that prior to every presidential election, the parliament speaker would call for a dialogue table attended by the blocs to consult over the presidential vote? Today Berri has dropped his mask,” Geagea said in an interview with the al-Markazia news agency.

A Lebanese Forces delegation started yesterday a visit to Qatar that will last until Thursday, the pro-LF Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Monday.

The delegation will represent LF leader Samir Geagea in meetings with top Qatari officials, comprising MPs Pierre Bou Assi and Melhem Riachi and LF executive committee member Joseph Jbeili.

Speaker Nabih Berri has been calling for dialogue over the presidential vote “as has been the norm,” and a norm in Lebanon is “stronger the constitution,” Hezbollah’s top MP Mohammad Raad has said.

“Michel Suleiman was elected after a dialogue session and Michel Aoun was elected after a dialogue session,” Raad added.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said he was flexible and responsive to the Quintet's requests as he was asked to replace a presidential "dialogue" initiative with "consultations."

"Consultations, communication, meeting, and talks are all synonyms for dialogue," Berri told French special envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian and the five ambassadors of Qatar, France, Egypt, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

Israeli Education Minister Haim Biton has said that "a military campaign must be launched in the north to oust Hezbollah and the residents of southern Lebanon beyond the Litani River."

He added: "I believe that this goal can be achieved because the situation in Gaza does not require the presence of three army divisions."

Iran’s acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani began an official visit to Lebanon on Monday by meeting with caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib. He later met with Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

Bagheri Kani replaced the late foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who died last month in a helicopter crash in Iran along with president Ebrahim Raisi and other passengers.

Israeli drones targeted Monday a car in the Sidon District town of Kawthariyat al-Rez and a motorbike in al-Naqoura, while warplanes raided the outskirts of Hanine in the Bint Jbeil District and the Rihan mountain in the Jezzine District deeper in the south.

The National News Agency said a person was killed and another was injured in the Naqoura strike.

Two Lebanese shepherds were killed in an Israeli strike that hit their house in the town of Houla near the Lebanon-Israel border on Sunday, state media reported.

Lebanon's National News agency said the men were civilians who used to sell sheep milk to neighboring villages.

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the newly appointed United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, arrived Saturday in Beirut. Hennis-Plasschaert will serve as the Head of Mission of the United Nations Office of the Special Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCOL).

“It is an honor to continue my service with the United Nations, here in Beirut,” the new Special Coordinator said. “In the interest of peace, security and stability in Lebanon and the wider region during this critical period, I look forward to closely cooperating with the Lebanese authorities and all partners in Lebanon and the international community to further the implementation of resolution 1701 (2006),” she added.

Hezbollah said it shot down an Israeli drone over southern Lebanon and fired rockets at an Israeli military base on Saturday, hours after Israeli drone strikes killed at least one person and wounded several others.

Hezbollah said in a statement that its fighters struck the Hermes 900 Kochav drone, saying such aircraft have been targeting militants and civilian homes. The exchange of fire along the Lebanon-Israel border has been intensifying over the past weeks with Israel's military push on Gaza's southern city of Rafah.