Head of the Parliament's Finance and Budget Committee, MP Ibrahim Kanaan submitted to Speaker Nabih Berri the final report on the draft 2019 state budget as approved by the committee, the National News Agency reported on Saturday.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro denied the US accusations that one of his ministers is linked to Hizbullah party, media reports said on Saturday.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday called for pacification in connection with the deadly Qabrshmoun incident but stressed that his party “stands by its ally” MP Talal Arslan.

“From the very first moments after the Qabrshmoun incident, we started our contacts to pacify the situation,” Nasrallah revealed in an interview on al-Manar television.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Friday called for “conducting a probe into the Mt. Lebanon incident” and “holding political reconciliations” in order to “secure coexistence.”

“Lebanon is facing an economic, refugee naturalization and Israeli threat, so what are we waiting for to unite and reconcile?” Berri warned.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced Friday that “nothing” will stop the cabinet sessions and that there is positivity regarding the efforts to contain the repercussions of the deadly Qabrshmoun incident.

“The cabinet sessions will take place and won’t be stopped by anything,” Hariri reassured after meeting President Michel Aoun in Baabda.

Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan on Friday announced that his party will hand over any wanted persons “when things take the right judicial course” regarding the deadly Qabrshmoun incident.

“A small number of (Progressive Socialist Party) fugitives has been handed over and what happened was not a clash, (but rather an ambush), seeing as a public road was closed in the face of a minister and his private car was hit with 19 gunshots and all cars in the convoy were hit with bullets,” Arslan said after meeting Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the Grand Serail.

Minister of Finance Ali Hassan Khalil stressed on Friday that Lebanon is capable of endurance and is not bankrupt as alleged in reports, noting that the new State budget is a milestone for reform.

“Many possibilities exist to manage the financial and monetary situation in cooperation between the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance,” said Khalil in an interview with Alaraby TV station on Friday.

Technicians and employees at Beirut’s airport Directorate-General of Civil Aviation staged a brief protest between 10:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. on Friday against a monthlong delay in the payment of working hours, the National News Agency reported.

The former Lebanese Ambassador to Washington Riad Tabbara said the new round of US sanctions on Hizbullah are unlikely to have serious consequences on Lebanon, pointing out that a US-Persian war is “unlikely,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.

Lebanese actor Patrick Moubarak has been questioned by the Central Criminal Investigations Department over a lawsuit accusing him of insulting religion as well as President Michel Aoun and Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

Acting State Prosecutor Imad Qabalan had initially ordered that Moubarak be remanded in custody for further investigations before deciding to release him over health concerns.