Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that Lebanon “has been and is still committed to Resolution 1701 and its implementation.”

The Israeli army said Thursday that its air defenses "successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target" that crossed from Lebanon into Israel.

Al-Manar had earlier reported two missiles fired by Israel's Iron Dome that exploded in the air facing the border region after alert sirens were activated in the Dovev, Sa'sa' and Mattat settlements in the Upper Galilee.

French Special Presidential Envoy for Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian met Thursday with Hezbollah top MP Mohammad Raad, Free Patriotic Movement leader Jebran Bassil and Kataeb leader Sami Gemayyel.

The meeting with Raad was also attended by French Ambassador to Lebanon Herve Magro and Hezbollah’s Arab and international relations officer Ammar al-Moussawi.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil lauded Wednesday Hezbollah MP Mohammed Raad's steadfastness after the killing of his son last week in an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon.

"We, as Lebanese, must respect each other’s martyrs,” Bassil said as he offered his condolences to Raad in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Lebanon’s Central Bank is inclined to abolish the so-called lollar, a term coined by Lebanese economist Dan Azzi in 2019 to refer to a ‘Lebanese dollar’, or a dollar that became trapped in Lebanon’s banking system in the wake of the 2019 crisis, media reports said.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati had received on the occasion of Lebanon's independence day a letter from French President Emmanuel Macron that the Grand Serail published on Tuesday, a day before the PM met with the French President's envoy in Beirut.

Before his envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian reiterated the need to elect a President in a meeting with Mikati, Macron warned in his letter that the presidential vacancy might weigh on the country's ability to overcome its crises and to prevent a security deterioration related to the war in Gaza.

The five-nation group on Lebanon -- which comprises the U.S., France, KSA, Qatar and Egypt -- has agreed on a presidential candidate for Lebanon whose name will be highlighted in the coming days, al-Jadeed TV reported overnight.

French Special Presidential Envoy for Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian, who arrived in Beirut overnight, met Tuesday in Riyadh with Saudi Royal Court adviser Nizar al-Aloula.

Israeli soldiers opened fire Wednesday from the Abbad post on a Lebanese Army patrol near the southern border town of Houla, despite an unofficial truce.

During The four days of truce, calm was interrupted by occasional Israeli shelling and incessant buzz of Israeli surveillance drones, while Hezbollah abided by the truce.

French special presidential envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian, who arrived Tuesday in Beirut, met Wednesday with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun.

Le Drian is reportedly visiting the crisis-hit country in a bid to reactivate the presidential election file.