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.

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.”

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.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Friday that telling people the truth is not a choice but a must, as he defended new taxes approved earlier this week by his government.

"The financial situation we inherited is very difficult and the trust between the state and the people was damaged in the past," he said, vowing that "this won't happen again."

The Ministry of State for Administrative Reform; the American University of Beirut (AUB), through its Business Practice and Policy Initiative at the Suliman S. Olayan School of Business; and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Regional Office in Beirut; announced Friday the launch of Y-IMPACT—Youth Involvement in Multi-Level Policy and Community Transformation.

The event took place at the Grand Serail, under the patronage of Dr. Nawaf Salam, president of the Council of Ministers in Lebanon, represented by Dr. Fadi Makki, minister of state for administrative reform.

The Israeli military will not withdraw from the so-called “buffer zones” in Lebanon and Syria, amid a shift in "Israel’s" security doctrine, which stipulates the expansion of these "buffer" areas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday.

The head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc MP Mohammad Raad met Friday with Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh, accompanied by a delegation from the Loyalty to Resistance bloc.

“We are keen on Lebanon’s security and stability and the normalcy of life in it, and we are also keen on confronting Israeli occupation so that it leaves our land and our people return to their villages and cities,” Raad said after the meeting.