A Lebanese man who has been held in Iran for nearly two years, Nizar Zakka, has announced that he is suspending a one-month hunger strike.

“At the request of my sons, and due to the support I have received from the U.S. Congress, I have decided to suspend my hunger strike,” said Zakka in a statement that was distributed by his lawyer Antoine Abu Dib on Friday.

Army Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Hatem Mallak on Friday visited military units deployed on the eastern border in the al-Qaa, Ras Baalbek and Arsal areas, inspecting their measures on the ground and giving the necessary instructions to the officers and soldiers, the National News Agency said.

President Michel Aoun on Friday told U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag that Lebanon is “fully committed” to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 and “all its stipulations.”

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea stressed on Friday that a strong state is “incapable of rising” as long as there are “armed groups lingering outside the framework of legitimacy.”

Lebanese Forces MP Antoine Zahra said Hizbullah has “violated Lebanon's sovereignty” and “overstepped the army's role” when it decided to wage a battle against militants in the outskirts of Arsal.

Lebanon's army shelled the positions of the jihadist Islamic State group entrenched in the outskirts of the border town of al-Qaa and on the heights of Ras Baalbek's outskirts, the National News Agency reported Friday.

NNA said the military forces have monitored suspicious movements.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri continued his meetings in Washington where he met at the Capitol Hill Thursday with US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations headed by Sen. Bob Corker and Senator Ben Cardin.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri started a long day at the American Congress Thursday by meeting House Speaker Paul Ryan at his office on Capitol Hill.

Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh announced Thursday that the so-called “army-people-resistance equation” is his political platform, in the wake of Hizbullah's military victory over al-Nusra Front in the outskirts of the border town of Arsal.

An agreement to evacuate besieged al-Nusra Front militants from Arsal's outskirts will be reached “within days,” General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim said on Thursday, hours after a ceasefire started between the jihadist group and Hizbullah.

“The terms of the agreement are confidential and what I can say is that a ceasefire is certainly underway,” said Ibrahim after talks with Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh.