The head of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, has announced that Israel will not be able to explore for offshore gas if Lebanon is not also doing the same in its territorial waters.

“The American mediator came to Lebanon over the past days to play the role of the fox in the splitting of the cheese between the rivals,” Raad said during a memorial service in the southern town of Kfar Fila.

The military court has released two detainees who had been suspected of spying for Israel, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi revealed on Monday.

Last month, the Lebanese security forces had busted more than 17 suspected Israeli spy networks, in one of the largest nationwide crackdowns in recent years.

Ukrainian Ambassador to Lebanon Ihor Ostash said Monday, in a press conference in Beirut, that his country appreciates a Lebanese statement that had condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The statement, issued Thursday by the Lebanese Foreign Ministry, condemned Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine and called on Moscow to “immediately halt military operations.”

Lebanon will cover the expenses of the evacuation of Lebanese nationals trapped in Ukraine, a Lebanese official said.

Secretary General of the Higher Relief Committee Maj. Gen. Mohamed Kheir revealed that planes will be sent to neighboring Poland starting March 4.

Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Rudakov has said that a Lebanese Foreign Ministry statement condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “does not take into consideration the cordial and historic bilateral relations between the two countries.”

President Michel Aoun has said that Lebanon’s “clear stance” is in favor of resolving the Russian-Ukrainian conflict through “dialogue,” following the latest controversy over a Lebanese Foreign Ministry statement that condemned over its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

“Lebanon has faced difficult disputes, confrontations and security incidents that all ended through dialogue,” Aoun added, in an interview with the Asas Media news website.

Thousands of young Arabs who took up studies in Ukraine, often fleeing violence back home, are appealing to be rescued from a new nightmare -- Russia's full scale invasion of the country.

More than 10,000 Arab students attend university in Ukraine, drawn to the former Soviet republic by a low cost of living and, for many, the lure of relative safety compared with their own troubled homelands.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Saturday suggested that the Lebanese should elect their president in a popular vote as part of ideas that he proposed to reform the political system.

“It is permissible for us here to seriously think of electing the president of the republic directly by the people in two electoral rounds, in order to preserve the post’s special status, symbolism and its representation of all Lebanese,” Bassil said at a FPM seminar on civil state.

The Cabinet on Friday approved “in principle” the electricity plan devised by Energy Minister Walid Fayyad.

Lebanon has wheat reserves sufficient for one month at the most, with Ukraine accounting for up to 60 percent of the crisis-hit country's wheat market, the economy minister said on Friday.

Concerns about wheat reflect the rippling effect of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Lebanese government is in talks with other countries like the United States, India and Canada to provide wheat amid concerns of global disruption to wheat supply during the crisis, the Minister, Amin Salam, said.