Following reports that Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat was dismayed by PM Saad Hariri for carrying out an electoral tour “without coordination,” Jumblat said he was invited to take the tour to Iqlim al-Kharroub in the Chouf district, but has apologized for meeting the request, al-Joumhouria daily reported Friday.

Human Rights Watch on Friday criticised Lebanese municipalities for what it called the unjustifiable expulsion of hundreds of Syrians from their homes since 2016, as sentiment against refugees simmers.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Thursday toured the Iqlim al-Kharroub region, a majority Sunni area in the Chouf district, the bastion of Druze leader MP Walid Jumblat.

“With the start of Rafik Hariri's political career, and later with al-Mustaqbal Movement, Iqlim al-Kharroub became a key component of the political equation in Mount Lebanon,” Hariri said at a huge electoral rally in Barja after touring several towns in the region.

Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that dialogue between regional arch-foes Iran and Saudi Arabia has become an “urgent need.”

“Dialogue between Arabs and their Muslim neighbors, specifically between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has become an urgent need,” Berri said in an interview with Iran's official news agency IRNA.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi arrived Thursday in the Qatari capital Doha on a pastoral visit during which he will lay the cornerstone for the Saint Charbel Church, Lebanon's National News Agency said.

Speaking to reporters, al-Rahi thanked Qatar for “offering a land lot for the construction of the Saint Charbel Church.”

Thirty Lebanese lawyers participated Thursday in a training organized by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on the conduct of International Criminal proceedings at the Beirut Bar Association (BBA), the STL said.

As part of his ongoing tours of Lebanese regions, British Ambassador to Lebanon Hugo Shorter has visited Baakline to see first-hand how the UK is supporting vulnerable host communities and Lebanon’s largest library, the British embassy said on Thursday.

President Michel Aoun sent a cable message to French President Emmanuel Macron, extending appreciation for his efforts at the CEDRE conference hosted by France early in April, the Presidency media office said on Twitter Thursday.

“Lebanon's re-emergence will only take place with reforms that are in line with my interests in combating corruption,” said Aoun.

AMAL Movement Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement, traded new jibes on Thursday, but this time against the backdrop of a conference regarding expatriates voting.

The Internal Security Forces arrested a fake medical practitioner in Beirut’s neighborhood of Minet el-Hosn, after tricking hospital patients and stealing their belongings, the National News Agency reported on Thursday.