British Ambassador to Lebanon Hugo Shorter on Monday announced that “there is a real opportunity for the reawakening of political institutions” in Lebanon, in a blog titled “To 365 Days of Independence”.

A high-ranking Saudi delegation held talks Monday with President Michel Aoun as part of an official visit to Lebanon.

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji hailed on Monday the election of President Michel Aoun and said that it turns a new leaf for Lebanon that will help to found the basis for national unification that has long been sought.

Qahwaji's comments came during his Order of the Day on the Occasion of Independence Day, he said: “The election of President General Michel Aoun has turned a new page and reshaped the broad lines of a political reality that has witnessed a lot of divisions and alignments. It heralds a promising era in the regularity of the state institutions and the integration of their roles, and to improve stability.”

Speaker Nabih Berri announced Monday that the parties that are obstructing the formation of the new government are “the ones who are violating the Constitution, norms and the rules of forming cabinets, not those who are warning against that.”

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri stressed on Monday that there are no disagreements between him and President Michel Aoun on the process of lining-up the new cabinet.

“We are in agreement with the President on everything. There are only some difficulties,” said Hariri after meeting Aoun at the Baabda Palace.

President Michel Aoun has received cables greeting him on the occasion of Lebanon's Independence Day from the United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, state-run National News Agency reported on Monday.

In his cable, the UAE president offered his sincerest wishes for the Lebanese President and people.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault stated that the Saudi grant to provide Lebanon with French weapons has not been reactivated as yet, and that the Lebanese need to send a positive “political signal” through the formation of a new cabinet to reactivate it, media reports said on Monday.

“The signal to reactivate the grant will not rise from the Saudi side but should initially originate from the Lebanese through the formation of their government,” Ayrault told An Nahar daily in an interview.

Speaker Nabih Berri unveiled an old agreement between him and President Michel Aoun when the latter vowed to Berri that the finance ministry will always be given to a Shiite minister as long as Aoun is president, As Safir daily reported Monday.

Berri unveiled the agreement that goes back to 1988 when Lebanon was under the Syrian tutelage and President Michel Aoun was Army Commander. He said that Aoun had vowed that the finance ministry portfolio will always be given to a Shiite minister as long as he is president, shall Berri convince the Syrian leadership of helping Aoun reach the presidential post, the daily reported.

President Michel Aoun has received cables greeting him on the occasion of Lebanon's Independence Day from several world leaders, topped by U.S. President Barack Obama, state-run National News Agency reported on Sunday.

A Hizbullah lawmaker on Sunday said his party was “pleased by the end of Christian frustration,” in reference to the rising alliance between the Free Patriotic Movement and the Lebanese Forces, as he warned of a possible “Lebanese, cross-confessional frustration.”