Saudi Charge d’Affaires in Lebanon Walid Bukhari on Friday hailed Lebanese officials, journalists, opinion leaders and citizens for condemning an editorial in ad-Diyar newspaper that carried insults against him and against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The Lebanese people “are the people of the kingdom and its friends,” Bukhari said to a delegation comprising civil society groups, independent figures, businessmen, engineers, physicians, lawyers, clerics and politicians, which visited him at the embassy to deplore the article written by Charles Ayyoub, ad-Diyar’s publisher and managing editor.

Iran’s new ambassador to Lebanon Mohammad-Jalal Firouznia on Friday held talks in Bnashii with Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh.

“We hope to witness a quick formation of the new Lebanese government,” the ambassador said after the meeting.

President Michel Aoun received at the Baabda Palace on Friday, French Ambassador Bruno Foucher where talks highlighted the latest domestic and regional developments, and bilateral relations between Lebanon and France.

The Consultative Sunni Gathering refused suggestions to allocate a ministerial portfolio to a Sunni figure not belonging to their group, as efforts continue to resolve the government formation delay, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.

A new obstacle of the representation of so-called independent Sunni MPs delaying the formation of the government, has triggered a “difference” between Hizbullah and President Michel Aoun after the latter’s declaration that the demand was “not righteous,” the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat daily reported on Friday.

Since Aoun’s latest remarks about said MPs, no meetings were recorded between him and Hizbullah, said the sources following up on the government formation process.

Lebanese authorities on Thursday foiled an attempt to smuggle hundreds of kilograms of hashish out of the country.

The National News Agency said Lebanese customs agents stopped the ship and prevented it from sailing out of Tripoli's port in northern Lebanon.

Ground, air and naval units from five Arab nations are arriving in Egypt to join their Egyptian counterparts for war games, according to the Egyptian military, in the first sign that a military alliance proposed by Washington for its Middle East partners may be gaining traction.

A military statement late Wednesday said forces from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan will take part in the Nov. 3-16 exercises codenamed "Arab Shield" and to be held in western Egypt. Lebanon and Morocco are taking part as observers.

Hizbullah has called on Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri to deal with the “independent Sunni MPs” through “dialogue and not arrogance,” insisting that the lawmakers should be represented by a minister in the new government.

“The party wants Hariri to talk to the Sunni opponents instead of dealing with them with arrogance,” Hizbullah sources told LBCI TV, stressing that those MPs are “an independent bloc and not subordinate to others.”

Caretaker Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq stressed Thursday that Lebanon's Sunni community is not a “political Caritas.”

“The Sunni community's great reserve of national responsibility has started to run out, after it was drained or rather blackmailed,” Mashnouq said.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement MP Hadi Hobeish said to get even with demands of the so-called independent Sunni MPs of March 8 to be represented in the Cabinet, he suggested the creation of a bloc of Christian MPs from different political parties in retaliation.