The United States announced Friday that it "remains committed to facilitating negotiations between Lebanon and Israel to reach a decision on the delimitation of the maritime boundary."

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil urged Friday for a dignified return of the Syrian refugees to their homeland.

Lebanon has one of the world’s highest numbers of refugees per capita and currently hosts over 1 million Syrians who fled the decade-old conflict. Officials say the influx has cost Lebanon billions of dollars and further damaged its crippled infrastructure while it struggles with a financial meltdown.

French Ambassador Anne Grillo has stressed the uniqueness of Lebanon and its importance to France and to President Emmanuel Macron, as it called for a verdict on the Beirut port blast.

Grillo said that France is contributing to reviving Lebanon through direct and indirect negotiations. She added that France has offered €200 million to Lebanon, since 2020.

Lebanon's stability and the independence of its political decisions will be discussed in a U.S.-GCC summit in Jeddah along with other regional matters, a Saudi media report said Friday.

U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to meet Arab leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council as well as leaders from Egypt, Iraq and Jordan to reactivate an annual summit between the United States and the GCC that had begun during the presidency of Barack Obama.

MPs Ashraf Rifi, Michel Moawad, Fouad al-Makhzoumi and Adib abdel Massih announced Friday the program of their new parliamentary bloc, Tajaddod.

Rifi demanded the hand over of any illegal "Lebanese or non-Lebanese weapons" to the state, considering that Hezbollah's arms have lost their resistance character.

An upcoming meeting between the leaders of the Free Patriotic Movement and al-Marada is probable, MP Tony Franjieh said.

Franjiyeh told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Friday, that his father, Suleiman Franjieh is a serious candidate for Presidency and has high chances of becoming President.

The indirect negotiations over the demarcation of the sea border between Lebanon and Israel are “still ongoing,” official Lebanese sources said on Thursday.

In remarks to LBCI television, the sources hoped the official Israeli response to Lebanon’s latest proposal “will come soon.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat suggested Thursday that “the Egyptian gas and the Jordanian electricity will not come in these circumstances.”

“Away from the fantasies of top advisors and the mysterious promises of some major embassies, can the energy portfolio be given to a guaranteed side and a single (power) plant be built, instead of burning the (central bank’s) reserves and eventually running out of them and plunging into the unknown?” Jumblat tweeted.

Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel on Thursday lamented that Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah “has once again declared himself president, prime minister and army chief at the same time.”

“He is ensnaring Lebanon’s people in a new adventure whose price they might pay without taking their permission,” Gemayel tweeted, referring to Nasrallah’s threatening of Israel with military escalation if a future deal over the disputed maritime border does not come in Lebanon's favor.

There is “severe disappointment” among Israeli officials over what they heard from visiting U.S. energy mediator Amos Hochstein, who “did not report any flexibility on the part of the Lebanese” side, Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Thursday.

“In Jerusalem, there was an expectation that during the visit of U.S. President Joe Biden to Israel, there would be progress towards an agreement, and the current development is particularly worrying in light of (Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan) Nasrallah's threats,” the newspaper added.