Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Monday announced that he would endorse any initiative put forward by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

“We will positively respond to any initiative by Patriarch al-Rahi to safeguard Mount Lebanon,” Bassil said after meeting al-Rahi in al-Diman.

A senior Hizbullah official on Sunday stressed that all U.S. sanctions and actions against his group are futile.

“All the U.S. talk we are hearing here and there has no value… and all their sanctions, threats and campaigns will not change any of the facts on the ground,” the head of Hizbullah’s executive council Sayyed Hashem Safieddine said.

Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan on Sunday called on Prime Minister Saad Hariri to stop sending what he called “overseas messages.”

“I call on PM Saad Hariri not to send us overseas messages, because the country can no longer bear them. Those who await overseas messages are the weak ones and not us,” Arslan said at a memorial service marking 40 days since the death of Rami Salman and Samer Abi Farraj -- two bodyguards of State Minister for Refugee Affairs Saleh al-Gharib who were killed in a clash with Progressive Socialist Party supporters in the Aley town of Qabrshmoun.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his wife Lara hosted at their ranch near Washington DC the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife for a lunch banquet, Hariri's press office said on Sunday.

Hariri's sons Hussam and Abdul Aziz and his daughter Louloua, former Minister Ghattas Khoury and his daughter Jenny as well as Rafik Bizri attended.

Interior Minister Raya el-Hasan said in a tweet on Saturday that Rafik Hariri International Airport has recorded its highest number of departures on Friday assuring that all the improvements needed will be implemented

President Michel Aoun received at the summer presidential residence in Beiteddine a delegation of the Progressive Socialist Party dispatched by Druze leader Walid Jumblat who is outside the country, the National News Agency reported on Saturday.

NNA said the delegation comprised PSP ministers, lawmakers, religious and political figures.

Speaker Nabih Berri said it was crucial for everyone in Lebanon to unite efforts in order to pass a difficult economic downdraft as he called for an economic and reform emergency plan, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri said that he heard support from the US administration for the Lebanese army, pointing out that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo renewed during their meeting the US support for Lebanon politically and economically and the US keenness on resolving the land and maritime border demarcation issue. He said the US assistance to the Lebanese army continues and “we are negotiating the financial and economic assistance”.

A representative of the Progressive Socialist Party on Friday took part in a rally organized by Hizbullah in the southern town of Bint Jbeil to mark the anniversary of the end of the 2006 war with Israel.

“We in the PSP find ourselves in our land on an occasion of such a type and magnitude,” PSP general secretary Zafer Nasser told al-Jadeed television in live remarks from the rally.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday stressed that his party is not seeking to eliminate others in Lebanon despite its “victory” in the region, as he called on some parties not to “eliminate others in their sects.”

“We do not want to eliminate anyone and let no one blow disputes out of proportion. These are illusions and fears and the Lebanese must activate the government and parliament to address the pressing files,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech marking the end of the 2006 war with Israel.