On behalf of the United States, Ambassador Elizabeth Richard presented on Friday over 1000 machine guns to the Lebanese Armed Forces as part of the LAF’s ongoing efforts to improve border security, a US embassy statement said.

The equipment includes 800 heavy machine guns and another 320 crew-served weapons, adding to battle-tested equipment already in the hands of the LAF. The machine guns will be used to increase firepower along Lebanon’s borders and will allow Land Border Regiments in the LAF to occupy and defend their border positions on schedule, the statement added.

Education Minister Marwan Hamadeh said on Friday that President Michel Aoun supports a cabinet voting on an electoral law if consensus fails on the issue, pointing out that vacuum at the legislative authority opens the door to a constituent assembly.

“President Michel Aoun adheres to an option of voting on a law, versus consensus which has started to generalize (between political parties),” Hamadeh told VDL (100.5).

The electricity reform plan to improve Lebanon's power supply was raised from outside the agenda during the cabinet meeting on Thursday, but the issue triggered dispute between ministers of the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri raised the issue when he inquired about the tender to lease Turkish power vessels as approved during a previous cabinet meeting.

An unprecedented move made by President Michel Aoun when he asked Prime Minister Saad Hariri to lead the cabinet session at the Presidential Palace, triggered a war of words on Twitter between Hariri and former PM Najib Miqati over the “constitutionality” of the gesture, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.

During a cabinet meeting chaired by Aoun at Baabda Palace on Thursday, Aoun had to leave to attend a celebration marking the 66th anniversary of the Lebanese University. He asked Hariri to take his place and preside over the session without adjourning it, said the daily.

Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh announced Thursday that President Michel Aoun is still in the Hizbullah-led March 8 camp while noting that “the new presidential tenure has not achieved anything until the moment.”

Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem announced Thursday that “everyone would win” should a new electoral law be approved, urging the political parties to double their efforts in this regard.

Hizbullah's Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc noted Thursday that an electoral system based on full proportional representation would cater to the interests of all parties in the country.

Eleven men including Lebanese nationals have been indicted in the case of the deaths of 71 migrants who suffocated in the back of a refrigerated truck in 2015, Hungarian authorities said Thursday.

Four people have been arrested on Beirut's Hamra Street on charges of receiving money transfers on behalf of “one of the most notorious drug kingpins in the Bekaa region,” the army said on Thursday.

The government on Thursday decided during a cabinet session to reactivate the ministerial panel that is tasked with devising a new electoral law, as Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced that Lebanon is “on the verge of a comprehensive and major solution.”