Al Habtoor Group said Monday that it has appointed one of the world’s leading international law firms specializing in sovereign disputes and treaty-based investment arbitration, to take legal action against Lebanese authorities over claims of investment losses of $1.7 billion.

Al Habtoor said it has entered the final stages of preparation for the commencement of international arbitration proceedings in Washington, D.C.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri does not seem concerned about a possible spillover of the U.S.-Iran conflict into Lebanon, sources told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

The sources said they sensed from Berri's attitude that Hezbollah will not take any action in the event of a strike on Iran.

U.S. Ambassador Michel Issa and Saudi Ambassador Walid Bukhari have openly raised the issue of postponing the parliamentary elections with Speaker Nabih Berri but he did not show cooperation, al-Akhbar newspaper reported.

A U.S. State Department official said the U.S. has ordered nonessential diplomats and family members to leave Lebanon as tensions over Iran rise with the threat of a potentially imminent military strike.

The official said a continuous assessment of the regional security environment determined it was “prudent” to draw down the U.S. Embassy’s footprint so that only essential personnel remained at their posts.

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem has emphasized that the 2025 funeral ceremony of slain Hezbollah leaders Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Sayyed Hashem Safieddine was “a pledge and renewal of the covenant to continue the resistance, a reclaiming of the initiative in rebuilding the resistance’s capabilities, and a reaffirmation of popular unity around it.”

In an interview with the Hezbollah-affiliated al-Ahed news portal marking the funeral’s first anniversary, Qassem pointed out that “its political significance is that the resistance continues -- leadership, fighters and people alike.”

Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday clarified that he has said that “the atmosphere of the five-nation group for Lebanon is in favor of postponing the elections.”

Berri added that he has not at all mentioned “any ambassador, neither from the Quintet, nor from other sides.”

Hezbollah warned that it would have no choice but to fight on after an Israeli strike on targets in Lebanon killed eight of its operatives.

Lebanon's government has vowed to disarm Hezbollah, but Israel insists it retains the right to defend itself by striking the Iran-backed militant group.

Attacks carried out by Israel on Friday in eastern Lebanon killed eight members of Hezbollah, an official from the group told AFP on Saturday.

President Joseph Aoun on Saturday strongly condemned deadly Israeli attacks on the Bekaa and the Ain al-Helweh camp carried out a day prior, the latest despite a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

In a statement, Aoun called the attacks "a blatant act of aggression aimed at thwarting diplomatic efforts" by the United States and other nations to establish stability.

Israeli strikes on the country's east and south killed at least twelve people on Friday, with Israel's army saying it targeted militant group Hezbollah and its Palestinian ally Hamas.

A Hezbollah source told AFP that a military leader from the Iran-backed group was among the dead in the strikes in the eastern Bekaa Valley.