French Special Presidential Envoy for Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian walked out angrily of a 10-minute meeting with Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Thursday after “heated” discussions, media reports said.

“The French envoy was swift in moving from the discussion of the presidential file, which is supposed to be the core of his mission, to the issue of extending the term of General (Joseph) Aoun, asking Bassil about his stance on extension and telling him that he is the only figure who opposes the matter,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Friday.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Thursday criticized government’s decision to pay $10 million in compensations to southern residents affected by Israeli bombardment.

French Special Presidential Envoy for Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian, who is currently visiting Lebanon, has expressed Western desire to “press Hezbollah to commit to the implementation of Resolution 1701,” a media report said.

The Council for South Lebanon will pay around $10 million in compensations to the south Lebanon residents affected by the Israeli bombardment that has taken place since October 8.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that Lebanon “has been and is still committed to Resolution 1701 and its implementation.”

The Israeli army said Thursday that its air defenses "successfully intercepted a suspicious aerial target" that crossed from Lebanon into Israel.

Al-Manar had earlier reported two missiles fired by Israel's Iron Dome that exploded in the air facing the border region after alert sirens were activated in the Dovev, Sa'sa' and Mattat settlements in the Upper Galilee.

French Special Presidential Envoy for Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian met Thursday with Hezbollah top MP Mohammad Raad, Free Patriotic Movement leader Jebran Bassil and Kataeb leader Sami Gemayyel.

The meeting with Raad was also attended by French Ambassador to Lebanon Herve Magro and Hezbollah’s Arab and international relations officer Ammar al-Moussawi.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil lauded Wednesday Hezbollah MP Mohammed Raad's steadfastness after the killing of his son last week in an Israeli airstrike in south Lebanon.

"We, as Lebanese, must respect each other’s martyrs,” Bassil said as he offered his condolences to Raad in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Lebanon’s Central Bank is inclined to abolish the so-called lollar, a term coined by Lebanese economist Dan Azzi in 2019 to refer to a ‘Lebanese dollar’, or a dollar that became trapped in Lebanon’s banking system in the wake of the 2019 crisis, media reports said.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati had received on the occasion of Lebanon's independence day a letter from French President Emmanuel Macron that the Grand Serail published on Tuesday, a day before the PM met with the French President's envoy in Beirut.

Before his envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian reiterated the need to elect a President in a meeting with Mikati, Macron warned in his letter that the presidential vacancy might weigh on the country's ability to overcome its crises and to prevent a security deterioration related to the war in Gaza.