U.N. chief Antonio Guterres on Thursday reiterated his call for an "impartial, thorough and transparent investigation" into the disastrous 2020 Beirut port explosion.

U.N. experts and groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had on Wednesday relaunched an appeal to the United Nations to send a fact-finding mission.

A Syrian ship that Ukraine says is carrying stolen Ukrainian grain has left a Lebanese port after officials in Lebanon allowed it to sail following an investigation, Lebanon's transport minister tweeted on Thursday.

The Syrian-flagged Laodicea had been anchored at the port of Tripoli since it arrived last Thursday, carrying 10,000 tons of wheat flour and barley. Ukraine says the grain was stolen by Russia, a claim it denies.

Hezbollah on Thursday marked the second anniversary of the Beirut port explosion by expressing its “warm condolences” to “the families of all martyrs -- Christians and Muslims, Lebanese and non-Lebanese.”

“Over the past two years, we witnessed a huge wave of intensive political and media campaigns that included false accusations and a large amount of incitement that led to very dangerous domestic tensions that almost undermined the country’s security and stability, especially after the bloody incidents in Tayyouneh,” Hezbollah said in a statement.

On the second anniversary of the Beirut port explosion, the European Union and its Member States extended their "sympathy and thoughts to families who lost their loved ones on that tragic day, as well as to all those who were impacted."

"We also reiterate our solidarity with the residents of Beirut and the people of Lebanon, and our commitment to continue our support in response to the explosion, alongside civil society actors, who have played a critical role in these efforts," they said in a statement.

Lebanon marks two years Thursday since an apocalyptic blast in Beirut port killed over 200 people, destroyed a large chunk of the city and deepened a painful economic crisis.

Crisis-hit Lebanon marks two years Thursday since a massive explosion ripped through Beirut, with victims' relatives planning protest marches as they keep demanding truth and justice.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati on Wednesday snapped back at the Free Patriotic Movement, and blamed “the interference of the president’s entourage” among other things for the failure to form a new government.

“The FPM keeps stirring quarrels and reversing facts on the brink of the end of the presidential tenure, in a clear attempt to deviate attention from the failure that characterized the past years in all fields,” Mikati’s press office said in a statement.

Hezbollah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem has noted that “today the Lebanese state is interested in the issue of recovering the water, oil and gas rights” and this is “a good scene.”

“The harmony present among the top leaders of the Lebanese state in favor of the unified stance on demarcation and on obtaining the Lebanese rights is a positive factor,” Qassem said in during a Ashura ceremony.

The indirect negotiations with Israel over sea border demarcation have entered a “very advanced stage” and the technical details are now being tackled, caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has said.

Speaking to al-Joumhouria newspaper, Bou Habib said he asked U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein upon the latter’s arrival in his office about the rest of the members of his time, after he noticed that two members were missing.

On the second anniversary of the catastrophic explosion at the port of Beirut on August 4, 2020, members of the International Support Group for Lebanon (ISG) have expressed their solidarity with Lebanon and its people, particularly with the families of the victims and “all those whose lives were affected by that event that shook Lebanon and the world.”

“We remember the more than 200 dead, and the many thousands who were injured, lost homes or employment, and who suffered trauma,” the ISG said in a statement.