Pro-Hezbollah journalist Hassan Olleik said Friday he will not appear before criminal investigators, after he was summoned by the Central Criminal Investigation Department, over a video he posted on his platform, al-Mahatta, in which he criticized President Joseph Aoun.

Olleik accused Aoun of purchasing from Serbia defective arms for the army under his command before being elected for presidency.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said Friday, after meeting with President Joseph Aoun in Baabda, that his meetings with Aoun are "always excellent".

The meeting comes amid recent tensions between Hezbollah and the President over his commitment to disarm the group.

By Mireille Rebeiz, Dickinson College and Josiane Yazbeck, Université La Sagesse

(THE CONVERSATION) More than a year after a ceasefire nominally ended active fighting, much of southern Lebanon bears the ecological scars of war. Avocado orchards are gone and beehives destroyed. So, too, are the livelihoods they supported. Meanwhile, fields and forests have disappeared under the intense fire caused by white phosphorus shelling. Shrapnel and unexploded bombs, however, remain.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil said Thursday he agrees with Saudi Arabia on many issues, including unity and the state's monopoly on arms.

Bassil said the partition of Lebanon would not benefit the Christians in the country, amid divisions and a "clear" shifting of borders in the region.

The Lebanese Army is preparing the national security strategy that President Joseph Aoun had pledged to devise in his inaugural speech, a media report said.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that “something” must be done about Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called for "national unity" after a long day of violent Israeli strikes on south Lebanon and on crossings along the Syria-Lebanon border.

"Statements of condemnation are no longer sufficient," Berri said, adding that only national unity can save Lebanon.

The International Monetary Fund has asked the Lebanese government to amend a banking draft law that would allow depositors to recover their funds and said it can't endorse the draft "as presented".

The law, a key demand from the international community to unblock economic aid to Lebanon, was approved last month by the Lebanese government. It stipulates that each of the state, the central bank, commercial banks and depositors will share the losses accrued as a result of the financial crisis.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that Hezbollah's disarmament south of the Litani river is "a historic moment in a very difficult environment".

Salam said, in an interview, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday, that Lebanon is "slowly but surely" regaining the trust of the international community and is moving to the second phase of disarming Hezbollah - north of the Litani.

British Ambassador to Lebanon Hamish Cowell, U.S. Ambassador, Michel Issa, and Canadian Ambassador Gregory Galligan met Lebanese Army chief General Rodolphe Haykal during the High-Level Steering Committee (HLSC) meeting on Wednesday.

“The Committee convened to review progress and challenges in securing Lebanon’s eastern and northern borders, and reaffirmed support for the LAF’s (Lebanese Army’s) efforts to reinforce state authority at this critical time,” the British embassy said.