President Joseph Aoun stressed Tuesday that “there is no siege on the Shiite sect as some are promoting” and that “the measures taken against Iranian airlines are linked to the (international) sanctions imposed on them.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed on Tuesday that troops remain at five positions in southern Lebanon past a pullout deadline, vowing action against any truce violation by militant group Hezbollah.

The Israeli military "will remain in a buffer zone in Lebanon with five control positions, and will continue to act forcefully and uncompromisingly against any Hezbollah violation," said Katz in a statement shortly after an extended deadline expired for Israel to withdraw from Lebanon under the November 27 truce deal.

Lebanon’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation announced Tuesday that flights from and to Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport will be suspended from 12pm to 4pm Sunday, during the funeral of slain Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed Tuesday that “Iran is exerting huge efforts to restore Hezbollah through offering financial aid.”

The U.N.'s Lebanon envoy and peacekeeping force on Tuesday warned Israel's delayed withdrawal from the country violated the U.N. resolution that ended the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war and formed the basis for a recent truce.

"Today marks the end of the period set for the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces... and the parallel Lebanese Armed Forces deployment to positions in southern Lebanon," the joint statement said, adding: "Another delay in this process is not what we hoped would happen, not least because it continues a violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006)."

A statement issued Tuesday by President Joseph Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said “Lebanon has the right to use all means” to secure Israel's full withdrawal from south Lebanon, after Israeli forces withdrew from southern border towns but retained five strategic hills near the frontier.

An emotional Wafiq Safa appeared Monday evening on pro-Hezbollah al-Mayadeen, saying with tears in his eyes "we are human and we are attached to our leaders," as he described slain Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as a humble, kind and loving person.

Head of Hezbollah's Liaison and Coordination Unit Safa, like many other Hezbollah leaders, was targeted in October in Israeli airstrikes on buildings in Beirut. The strikes killed 22 people and wounded 117 others, but Safa appeared unscathed Monday, and claimed that his assassination attempt was more American than Israeli. "The U.S. has asked Israel to kill me," he said.

the government said Monday the state should be the sole bearer of arms, in a thinly veiled message on Hezbollah's arsenal that came hours ahead of a deadline to fully implement a truce with Israel.

Information Minister Paul Morcos was reading a draft of the cabinet's roadmap that must be submitted to a confidence vote in parliament so the new government can exercise its powers.

Israeli forces withdrew from border villages in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, under a deadline spelled out in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.

The Israeli troops, however, have remained in five strategic overlook points inside Lebanon — a sore point with Lebanese officials and the militant Hezbollah group, who have maintained that Israel is required to make a full withdrawal by Tuesday.

Hezbollah on Monday condemned the vandalization of a statue honoring President Joseph Aoun in the Jarmak-Aishiyeh area in the Jezzine region, calling it a “suspicious attack” and “seditious act.”