France is seriously leading a project to keep UNIFIL’s international forces in Lebanon under a new mandate that includes comprehensive supervision of the Lebanese border with Syria while maintaining a limited number of observers on the southern border, informed sources said.

The recent visit of the French presidential envoy to Lebanon, Anne-Claire Legendre, was primarily aimed at offering "France's services" to sponsor a Lebanese-Syrian dialogue for the purpose of demarcating the land and sea borders between the two countries, the sources told al-Akhbar newspaper.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri urged a United Nations Security Council delegation on Friday to pressure Israel to respect a year-old ceasefire and to halt its one-sided war on Lebanon.

Despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and has also maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems "strategic".

Lebanon has moved toward negotiations with Israel to spare the war and crisis-hit country further violence -- and not to please the international community, President Joseph Aoun told Friday a visiting United Nations Security Council delegation.

Aoun said that Lebanon is convinced that wars cannot lead to positive results and that only negotiations can provide stability and security and end the Lebanese people's suffering.

Israel will still escalate its strikes against Hezbollah despite the upgrade in the level of negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, an informed source said.

The source told MTV that the escalation would involve strikes against Hezbollah’s arms depots and assassinations against group officials “amid Hezbollah’s clinging to its arms.”

Close to 1.5 million Syrian refugees have voluntarily returned to their home country over the past year.

UNHCR Estimates that 383,326 have returned from Lebanon to Syria since the fall of the Bashar Assad regime in December 2024.

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack has called for direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, noting that Hezbollah cannot be disarmed by force.

He also voiced major concern over a renewal of Israel’s war on Lebanon.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said the mission of the civilian who was included in a committee monitoring the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire is more important than the name.

"The important thing for me is what he will do," Berri told online news website Asas Media in remarks published Friday, adding that what is important is that former Lebanese Ambassador to the United States, Simon Karam succeed in ending Israel's violations and occupation, and in returning the Lebanese prisoners.

A delegation of the U.N. Security Council and U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus met Friday with President Joseph Aoun, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. The three leaders urged the delegation to pressure Israel to respect a year-old ceasefire.

Aoun said after the meeting, in a statement on the X platform, that the delegation expressed its support for stability in Lebanon through the implementation of international resolutions, and the willingness to help in supporting the Lebanese Army, completing its deployment, and implementing the state's monopoly on arms.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said Friday that a series of Israeli strikes on south Lebanon Thursday were in the peacekeepers' area of operations, warning Lebanese actors against "any reaction that could aggravate the situation further."

UNIFIL condemned in a statement the strikes as "clear violations of Security Council resolution 1701" and urged the Israeli army to avail of the liaison and coordination mechanisms available to them.