Spotlight
Armed clashes erupted Thursday in the Syrian-Lebanese border region between the Zoaiter and Jaafar Lebanese clans and fighters from Syria’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which consist the core of Syria’s new Islamist-led authorities, media reports said.

The toppling of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, who had strong ties to Iran and Hezbollah, has crippled Hezbollah's ability to bounce back by cutting off a vital weapons-smuggling route through Syria.
Syria's new president and Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister met last month in Damascus and discussed the relations between the two countries. In the meeting, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa vowed that Syria will no longer allow the smuggling of weapons and money to Hezbollah, a local media report said.

A draft cabinet line-up published by media outlets shows that the Free Patriotic Movement and the main Sunni blocs do not have representatives.

President Joseph Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and PM-designate Nawaf Salam met Thursday in Baabda for around two hours without managing to resolve "a dispute over the fifth Shiite minister" in the new government, media reports said.
TV networks had expected the government to be formed due to Berri's presence at the palace and the summoning of Council of Ministers Secretary-General Mahmoud Makiyyeh, who was supposed to recite the cabinet formation decrees.

Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam met Wednesday evening in Baabda with President Joseph Aoun, amid reports that the formation of the new cabinet has become imminent after the issue of the Lebanese Forces' share was resolved.
Speaking after the meeting, Salam said he is "working on" forming a "harmonious" and "reformist" government.

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, many of whom in exile since 1948, believe that U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal for Gaza is doomed to fail, an activist said.
Suheil Natour, who heads an aid group in the Mar Elias camp in Beirut, said that neither the Palestinians themselves nor the neighboring countries that Trump suggested might absorb them will accept the population transfer plan.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gifted U.S. President Donald Trump a golden pager and a regular one, a reference to the clandestine operation against Hezbollah last year.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has noted that the FPM supports the principle of rotating ministerial portfolios.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has named Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem as his "representative" in Lebanon, Iranian media reported Wednesday.
"The leader of the revolution in a decree introduced Sheikh Naim Qassem, secretary general of Hezbollah, as his representative in Lebanon," Tasnim news agency said.

Qatar's prime minister said during a visit to Beirut that Doha would help Lebanon rebuild after a devastating Hezbollah-Israel war, but only after a new government is formed.
Reeling from years of crisis and a conflict, Lebanon has pinned hopes on wealthy Gulf states to fund reconstruction, with Qatar having been heavily involved in such efforts after the Hezbollah-Israel war of 2006.
