Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat denounced the “barbaric” behavior that the security forces used in confronting Wednesday's protests of the You Stink campaign, assuring that the demonstrations are “righteous.”

“The protests carried out by some youth in downtown Beirut are legal and righteous, but the barbaric way used to disperse them are strongly rejected and condemned,” said Jumblat via twitter on Friday.

Iran is seeking to transfer state-of the-art weaponry from storehouses in Syria to Hizbullah, the Israeli Foreign Ministry director-general Dore Gold told The Jerusalem Post from Berlin.

The weapons include the SA-22 (Pantsir- S1) air defense system and the Y‑akhont anti-ship cruise missile, said Gold, who is on his first trip to a European capital for high-level talks.

French officials have been holding talks with their counterparts in Beirut away from the media spotlight to follow up the delivery of French weapons to the Lebanese army under a Saudi grant, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.

Lebanon received in April the first shipment of $3 billion worth of French arms under the Saudi-financed deal to boost the country's defensive capabilities to combat terror threats.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam is expected to call for a cabinet session next week for “refusing to give up to paralysis,” his sources said Friday.

The sources quoted Salam as saying that “giving up to the logic of paralysis” is not part of his “dictionary.”

President Barack Obama wrote in a letter to Congress that the U.S. will uphold sanctions targeting Iran's non-nuclear activities, such as its support for Hizbullah.

Obama promised Democratic lawmakers that the U.S. will continue to keep economic pressure on Iran — and keep military options open — if his administration's nuclear deal with Tehran goes through.

The Free Patriotic Movement reached an agreement on Thursday for Jebran Bassil to be elected as its president.

Bassil, who is also the country's foreign minister, will succeed his father-in-law MP Michel Aoun as chief of the FPM.

Hizbullah's Loyalty to the Resistance bloc voiced on Thursday its support for efforts that seek to protect the government, while renewing its accusation against the Mustaqbal Movement of standing behind the country's ongoing political deadlock.

It said after its weekly meeting: “We urge the Mustaqbal party to cease evading holding dialogue with Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun.”

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has warned that the state would “collapse” if Baabda Palace remained vacant and the cabinet crisis was not solved, As Safir daily reported on Thursday.

“I have told Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that (Tehran's) lauding of the (Lebanese) government and its head should be interpreted with bringing a consensual president or else Lebanon would collapse and be destroyed,” Salam said, according to As Safir.

Negotiations between General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim and the Islamic State extremist group have resumed to reach a deal on the release of the captive servicemen, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported Thursday.

The daily said the talks resumed around two weeks ago through a mediator after more than six months of freeze in the negotiations aimed at agreeing on a prisoner swap.

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim has said that he discussed with Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun ways to resolve the cabinet crisis.

“The door is not closed. There is a possibility to find a solution,” Ibrahim told al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Thursday.