UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron has ended a one-day visit to Lebanon. This is his first official visit to the country as Foreign Secretary, following his previous visit as Prime Minister in September 2015 and his fourth visit to the Middle East as Foreign Secretary.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf met Friday with deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab and other Lebanese MPs in Washington.

The meeting discussed the need to elect a president and prevent an all-out war in Lebanon.

Former prime minister and al-Mustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri’s upcoming visit to Beirut will not be swift and he will give time to his popular base and to anyone who might request to meet him -- be them ambassadors, politicians or social figures, al-Jadeed TV has reported.

Hezbollah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem has asserted that any ceasefire in Gaza would also apply to the Lebanese-Israeli border, where Hezbollah and the Israeli army have been trading fire since Oct. 8.

Israeli artillery shelled Friday several southern border towns including al-Khiam, al-Hamames, and the outskirts of al-Naqoura.

The Israeli army said it had responded Thursday to attacks from Lebanon by striking the source of the fire, in addition to targeting "a Hezbollah military site in Tayr Harfa in southern Lebanon" while Hezbollah said it struck Israeli "spying devices" in an Israeli post in the occupied Shebaa Farms and three other posts along the border.

Britain's top diplomat has said that his country is proposing a plan to de-escalate tensions on the Lebanon-Israel border, where Hezbollah and Israeli forces have been trading fire near-daily for the past four months, sparking fears of a wider war.

The plan would include Britain training Lebanese army forces to carry out more security work in the border region, he said.

The U.S. State Department has downgraded its travel warning for Lebanon from the “Do Not Travel” category to the “Reconsider Travel” category.

Israeli artillery shelled Thursday several border towns in southern Lebanon as Hezbollah targeted an Israeli post in the occupied Shebaa farms.

Hezbollah said it has attacked surveillance equipment in the Radar post, while Israel shelled Yarine, al-Jebbayn, Em el-Tout, and the outskirts of al-Hebbariye.

The Constitutional Council on Wednesday held a session at its headquarters without managing to reach a decision on the appeal filed by the Free Patriotic Movement against the recent extension of the army chief’s term, which means that the extension will not be annulled, the National News Agency said.

Parliament had extended the army chief's mandate on December 15, averting a military power vacuum as the country faces spillover of the Israel-Hamas war without a president or a fully functioning government.

Lebanon’s gasoline, diesel and gas importing companies announced overnight that they would be suspending the delivery of fuel to distributors as of Wednesday morning as well as importation operations, in protest at parliament’s decision to impose an extraordinary tax on the companies that “imported subsidized goods in 2020 and 2021.”

Urging “solutions,” the importers said they would be willing to reopen and supply the market with fuel, even on Sundays, when the issue gets resolved.