Spotlight
The MPs of the Progressive Socialist Party, the Free Patriotic Movement and the Moderation Bloc have advised the opposition to communicate with Speaker Nabih Berri regarding the presidential election crisis, following its latest botched initiative, a media report said.
The PSP delegation that met with the opposition “stressed the need to halt the trade of accusations that would deepen the rift between the parties, recommending communication with Berri to produce a settlement leading to the election of a president,” Asharq al-Awsat newspaper has reported.

British Ambassador to Lebanon Hamish Cowell hosted Thursday a Business and Trade reception to celebrate record-breaking bilateral trade figures between the UK and Lebanon.
In 2023, bilateral trade figures between the UK and Lebanon passed the £1bn mark for the first time ever, reaching a record high of £1.1 billion, an increase on over 45% on 2022. Export brands increased to £160 million. The top five goods exported by the UK to Lebanon throughout 2023 were mechanical power generators, cars, beverages, dairy products, and medicinal and pharmaceutical products. Services accounted for over £600m.

Hezbollah targeted Friday surveillance equipment in Metula and Israeli soldiers in Hanita in northern Israel.
The Israeli army meanwhile fired at Lebanese Army soldiers in al-Ghajar, but no casualties were reported.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has rejected the latest paper issued by the opposition’s 31 lawmakers and has not seen in it a “roadmap” for resolving the presidential crisis, sources close to him said.
“The opposition members who reject dialogue, mainly the Lebanese Forces, are only working for political bickering,” the sources quoted Berri as saying, in remarks to Annahar newspaper published Thursday.

Crisis-hit Lebanon remains without a president since Michel Aoun's term ended in October 2022, as tensions boil on the border with Israel since October 7.
In a bid to break the impasse, opposition lawmakers started an initiative Tuesday, announcing two suggestions to facilitate the election of a president.

Hezbollah launched Thursday an array of suicide drones on an artillery base in Israel's Kabri in response to attacks on Lebanese civilians and villages.
The group later targeted the al-Malkia post, surveillance equipment in Hadb Yarine and a group of soldiers in Hanita in northern Israel.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday said that his group “will not tolerate any attack in Lebanon should there be a ceasefire in Gaza.”
“Should there be a ceasefire agreement, which we hope for, our front will undoubtedly cease fire, as happened during the previous truce,” Nasrallah announced in a televised speech commemorating slain Hezbollah commander Mohammad Nasser.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Wednesday accused the rival Hezbollah-led camp of rejecting dialogue over the presidential file, a day after the opposition proposed two suggestions for resolving the crisis.
“The mask has finally fallen, albeit after two years,” Geagea said in a statement.

U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein is seeking an agreement through which both the Lebanese and Israeli sides can “appear victorious,” an informed source said in remarks to Kuwait’s al-Anbaa newspaper, quoting Western diplomats.
“One of the exits that he is looking for would be a balanced, mutual retreat from both sides of the border by Hezbollah’s fighters and the Israeli army with U.S. guarantees and an active role for the U.N. forces,” the daily said.

Hezbollah targeted Wednesday Israeli artillery positions in the occupied Golan Heights with dozens of Katyusha rockets, in response to an overnight strike on a village in al Bekaa.
The group said in a statement it has targeted artillery positions in al-Zaoura, as Israeli warplanes struck a house in the southern border town of Tayr Harfa.
