U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein held talks Friday with Lebanese leaders over sea border demarcation and the gas dispute with Israel.

“I think we’re making very good progress and I’m very hopeful that we can reach an agreement,” Hochstein said after meeting President Michel Aoun in Baabda.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has confirmed his role in convincing Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati to refuse to add six ministers of state to the new government.

"I am proud that I was able to do so," Berri told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Friday.

Families of the Beirut port blast victims stormed Friday the Justice Ministry, to protest a decision by caretaker Justice Minister Henri Khoury to name an alternate investigator in the Beirut port blast case.

The protesters were forced to leave the building by security forces members. They couldn't manage to reach the minister's office.

In his just-completed role as head of the Israeli military's Home Front command, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin was in charge of bolstering a network of early-warning systems and shelters in case of rocket attacks. It may have been the ideal preparation for his new assignment.

Gordin is set to soon take over the Northern Command -- putting him at the forefront of Israel's efforts to contain Hezbollah. At a time of heightened tensions, the Lebanese militant group is believed to possess tens of thousands of rockets and missiles capable of striking anywhere in Israel, dwarfing any threat posed by the Palestinian militant groups in Gaza that have battled Israel in recent years.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday scheduled a plenary parliamentary session for September 14, 15 and 16.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Thursday accused the Presidency and its allies of seeking to commit as much violations as possible prior to the end of President Michel Aoun’s term, in connection with the controversy over a decision to name an alternate judicial investigator in the Beirut port blast case.

Lebanon’s Economic Committees, a grouping of Lebanon's main businessmen and owners of major firms, on Thursday proposed an economic recovery plan that entails recovering 74% of the funds of bank depositors.

Caretaker PM and PM-designate Najib Mikati has “finally” won a U.S. green light to accept the Iranian fuel grant and Washington has made the condition that “there should be no political communication over the matter,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Thursday.

President Michel Aoun has hinted that he might eventually choose not to leave the Baabda Palace upon the end of his presidential term on October 31.

A group of 61 migrants picked up by a cargo ship from a crippled fishing boat in the central Mediterranean have safely reached the island of Crete hours after a severely ill child on the freighter died while being airlifted to Greece, Greek authorities said.

The Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian migrants had reportedly been stranded for days without provisions on a leaking fishing boat near Malta, after trying to sail from Lebanon to Italy about 10 days ago.