The Biden administration is hopeful that warming ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia will help deescalate conflicts and crises in Lebanon and across the Middle East, a senior U.S. diplomat Barbara Leaf said.

Earlier this month, Riyadh and Tehran agreed to re-establish diplomatic relations after seven years of rupture — a move that stirred cautious optimism across the region.

Major General Aroldo Lázaro, Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), chaired a regular Tripartite meeting at a U.N. position in Ras al-Naqoura on Thursday.

A Qatari delegation is scheduled to visit Beirut next week to meet with Speaker Nabih Berri, caretaker PM Najib Mikati and Hezbollah officials, informed sources said.

The delegation will meet with “Hezbollah’s leadership” in a bid for “presidential normalization with the party in a manner that meets the Arab and international aspirations regarding the needed salvation roadmap for Lebanon,” the sources told the Nidaa al-Watan daily in remarks published Thursday.

On a visit to Lebanon on Thursday, Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič, announced €60 million in humanitarian aid for the most vulnerable people in the country, including Syrian refugees and Lebanese people in need. The Commissioner is visiting EU-funded humanitarian projects and meeting humanitarian partners on the ground as well as the Lebanese authorities.

The funding comes as Lebanon’s population is facing increasing poverty levels, food insecurity, and disease outbreaks. An estimated four million people need humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs, the European Commission said in a statement.

Members of the European Parliament will next month submit a draft resolution related to returning the displaced Syrians who are present in Lebanon to their country, LBCI TV reported on Thursday.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati will call next week for a cabinet session, his advisor said Thursday.

Cabinet was scheduled to convene last Monday but the session on public sector wages was postponed, after the government said last week that it will delay the start of daylight saving time by a month until the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Thursday said that “the issue of the municipal elections has become totally in the hands of the government.”

Caretaker Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamieh scrapped a deal for a second terminal at Beirut's international airport, after critics raised transparency concerns in the $122 million project.

"Based on a Hezbollah request, I bravely announce that the contract will not be implemented, as if it's null and void," Hamieh said, shortly before the parliamentary public works committee convened.

Protesters, including retired soldiers, rallied Thursday at Riad al-Solh's square, facing the Grand Serail, to demand better pay as public sector employees start this month withdrawing their salaries at the LL90,000 Sayrafa rate.

The protesters tried again to break through the fence leading to the Grand Serail.

The heads of parliamentary blocs and political forces have been told by Western diplomats to “move to a new phase of presidential nominations,” a media report said.