Deputy Prime Minister Ghassan Hasbani on Friday said his exclusion as deputy PM from a high-level financial meeting in Baabda was “unjustified.”

“I have not found a justification for the exclusion of the deputy prime minister from such a meeting, especially that we and those whom we represent have clear approaches that serve the government and Lebanon’s higher interest,” Hasbani said in a statement.

A high-level economic-financial meeting chaired by President Michel Aoun was held Friday at the Baabda Palace, after which Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced that the conferees expressed their commitment to the stability of the Lebanese lira.

“An agreement has been reached on a host of key steps which we will work on implementing in the coming period and which will contribute to activating the economy and enhancing the situation of the state’s finances,” Hariri added.

Lebanon’s top leaders on Friday managed to secure a reconciliation between Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat and Lebanese Democratic Party chief Talal Arslan, ending weeks of political deadlock and tensions over the deadly Qabrshmoun incident.

The meeting was chaired by President Michel Aoun and attended by Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

Controversy grew on Friday over a garbage landfill that is being set up in the northern area of Terbol, as trash filled the streets of several northern districts.

LBCI television said Prime Minister Saad Hariri has asked Environment Minister Fadi Jreissati to suspend construction works for 24 hours to “allow finding another location.”

Governor of Banque du Liban Riad Salameh has been awarded an 'A' rank among 94 central bank governors in the world in the 2019 report of Global Finance, the National News Agency reported on Friday.

General Security chief Maj. Gan. Abbas Ibrahim announced in a press conference on Friday that Lebanon has mediated the release of a Canadian citizen captured in Syrian last year.

Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Imad Othman assured on Friday that “Lebanon’s summer will be safe and promising,” and the security forces are working hard to relay a message that Lebanon is a safe haven for tourists.

The political and economic crisis in Lebanon has reached unprecedented levels which “prompted” the United States to issue a statement on the Qabrshmoun incidents, a move likely to be replicated by Europe "paving way for sanctions" on the Free Patriotic Movement, the Kuwaiti al-Qabas daily reported on Friday.

Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc on Thursday decried “foreign interferences” in Lebanon’s affairs, a day after the U.S. embassy in Beirut issued a rare statement regarding the Qabrshmoun incident.

“Experiences have proved that the exchange of tirades and bickering among the parties cannot produce a solution or resolve a problem, and that foreign interferences in the domestic affairs are condemned, whatever their source may be, because they do not serve the national interest or care about the country’s welfare,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

The Progressive Socialist Party on Thursday voiced support for the statement issued by the U.S. embassy in Beirut regarding the Qabrshmoun incident.

“The statement reflects the West’s concern over what is happening in Lebanon, from the attempt to subdue the judiciary and blatantly interfere in its affairs to the attempt to fabricate a file that does not match the results of the investigations,” the PSP said in a statement reported by LBCI television.