Over the last year, the United States has delivered thirty-two Bradley Fighting Vehicles and associated ammunition, equipment, and training valued at more than $100 million to the Lebanese Armed Forces, the U.S. embassy said.

Thursday's live fire exercise hosted by the Air Assault Regiment “demonstrates the LAF’s (Lebanese Army's) ability to integrate these modern combat systems and combine its new protected mobility capabilities with A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft previously provided by the United States,” the embassy said in a statement.

The U.N. Security Council has warned that violations of the ceasefire agreement between Lebanon and Israel could lead to a new conflict and urged international support for Lebanon's armed forces and their stepped up deployment in the south and at sea.

The council's warning against "a new conflict that none of the parties or the region can afford" came in a resolution adopted unanimously extending the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon known as UNIFIL until Aug. 31, 2019.

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said that Israel will not be bound by whatever agreements the international community may reach on Syria after its civil war.

The Red Cross and Lebanese activists made a plea for the passage of a law to uncover the fate of thousands of people missing since the country's devastating civil war.

An estimated 17,000 people remain disappeared since Lebanon's 15-year war ended in 1990, but a draft law to create a commission of inquiry could help determine their fate.

Lebanon's leaders on Friday made statements commemorating Imam Moussa al-Sadr, the revered founder of the AMAL Movement who disappeared during a visit to Libya forty years ago.

President Michel Aoun said Sadr “struggled for Lebanon's unity and its message of coexistence,” wishing he was still present in Lebanon to represent “a source of inspiration in political life and to be an icon for rapprochement, openness and keenness on people's interests.”

The international community has called on Lebanon to form a “balanced government,” warning that it will not accept the presence of veto power for Hizbullah in it, media reports said.

“The international messages have intensified over the past week, and they all stress the need for the formation of a balanced government,” al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Friday.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri prefers to hold talks with Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil over the government line-up before meeting President Michel Aoun, media reports said.

“Hariri will not visit Aoun carrying any draft Cabinet line-up except after a meeting he will hold anytime before the end of the week with FPM chief Minister Jebran Bassil,” al-Joumhouria newspaper reported Friday.

The U.N. Security Council has voted unanimously to renew for another year the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon. 

Caretaker Information Minister Melhem Riachi held talks Thursday with Speaker Nabih Berri over the new government, in the presence of caretaker Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil.

Khalil arrived at the Center House after the meeting for talks with Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri could soon meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Deputy Speaker Elie Ferzli has said.

“A meeting between Speaker Nabih Berri and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is possible at any given moment,” Ferzli said in an interview with al-Mayadeen television.