In Lebanon, rallies were held Friday in solidarity with Gaza in multiple refugee camps hosting Palestinians.

Israel and Gaza militants traded heavy fire Friday that has been met with international calls for de-escalation.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday stressed that his party is not “imposing” a presidential candidate on anyone in Lebanon.

“Let each camp nominate any candidate it wants and let’s go to parliament to elect a president,” Nasrallah urged, in an annual televised speech commemorating slain Hezbollah commander Mustafa Badreddine.

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari has told the majority-Sunni National Moderation parliamentary bloc that “Saudi Arabia has no veto on anyone nor a veto on Suleiman Franjieh,” a media report said.

Asked whether his meeting with Franjieh has “dispelled his country’s concerns,” Bukhari told the bloc, according to al-Liwaa newspaper, that he has “no concerns over Franjieh, but rather some observations that have been clarified.”

The opposition has tried to agree with Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on a presidential candidate who would enjoy the broadest support in parliament and who was his candidate in the first place, a media report said on Friday.

“It proposed to the FPM leader that ex-minister Jihad Azour be a candidate supported by the entire opposition, but he evaded accepting this proposal in order not to infuriate Hezbollah,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has said yes to French President Emmanuel Macron for Suleiman Franjieh, the French daily Le Monde quoted a French diplomat as saying.

The newspaper said that the Saudi-Syrian rapprochement has increased the presidential chances of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's personal friend.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has reversed his stance on choosing a “confrontational candidate” and has accepted to endorse “a consensual candidate who wouldn’t provoke Hezbollah in particular,” a media report said.

The LF believes that it has offered “a major concession in this regard, because its aim is to present a candidate in the face of Franjieh within a few weeks,” informed sources told al-Akhbar newspaper in remarks published Friday.

A meeting between Saudi Ambassador Walid Bukhari and Hezbollah's presidential candidate Suleiman Franjieh, although dubbed by some local media as an ordinary meeting, was considered a "major positive Saudi shift" by a senior political source.

The source told al-Joumhouria, in remarks published Friday, that Saudi Arabia has shifted "from veto to dialogue" with Franjieh, and that elections might be held within a month if the positive ambiance persists.

Thursday’s meeting in Yarze between Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari and Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh “did not change the kingdom’s stance as to what it has declared regarding the Lebanese presidential juncture,” a media report said on Friday.

“What Franjieh heard from the ambassador was the same stance that the other parties heard from him: his country does not have any problem with anyone and it does not support or veto anyone,” Annahar newspaper reported.

A crushing economic crisis in Lebanon has impelled members of the security forces to take on side hustles to get by, raising concerns about security in the eastern Mediterranean country.

Soldiers in Lebanon have seen their salaries diminish to around an eighth of their value in dollar terms since the country's economy began tanking in late 2019.

The British Ambassador to Lebanon, Hamish Cowell CMG, hosted a celebration of the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla on Wednesday, May 10 at the Sursock Palace Gardens in Beirut.