Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat on Monday criticized retired servicemen who tried to storm the Grand Serail during a cabinet session.

“Is it reasonable when a part of the state watches another part storming the Grand Serail? Is it reasonable to reach this extent of chaos only because it is required to reassess Measure No. 3 in order to curb spending?” Jumblat asked in a tweet.

Scuffles broke out Monday between security forces and retired servicemen outside the Grand Serail during a cabinet session on the state budget.

Riot police fired water cannons on the protesters after they crossed metallic barricades and approached the government's headquarters.

U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Satterfield held separate talks Monday with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Saad Hariri to continue discussions over the demarcation of Lebanon's maritime and territorial borders with Israel.

Ain el-Tineh sources told LBCI TV that there is “progress” in the discussions.

The Labor Confederation on Monday accepted the resignation of Beshara al-Asmar, the chief of General Confederation of Lebanese Workers, after his leaked insulting remarks against revered late ex-patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir.

The Cabinet called for the resignation of Beshara al-Asmar, the chief of General Confederation of Lebanese Workers against the backdrop of his leaked insulting remarks about ex-patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, the National News Agency reported on Monday.

Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil threatened to resign from the government over accusations that he is delaying the approval of an already complicated state budget, media reports said on Monday.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri is scheduled to lead a delegation to Saudi Arabia to partake in “two emergency summits” in Saudi Arabia to discuss the escalating tensions in the Gulf, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Monday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat on Sunday warned Arabs against getting involved in a war in the region amid the escalating tensions between the United States and Iran.

“Amid this huge and scary confrontation between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic, and amid the Israeli incitement to warm, we hope no one in the Arab world will get involved, because war will only produce vast devastation,” Jumblat tweeted.

Economy Minister Mansour Bteish announced Sunday that the ministry will scrap a contract with General Confederation of Lebanese Workers chief Beshara al-Asmar over his abusive remarks against late former Maronite patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir.

“After his condemned moral fall and his detention by the judiciary, the Ministry of Economy and Commerce will, tomorrow, scrap a Beirut Silos work contract with Beshara al-Asmar,” Bteish tweeted.

The head of the Finance Parliamentary Committee MP Ibrahim Kanaan stressed Sunday that a late state budget is not a real budget.

“A budget that is not approved on time is not a budget but rather a de facto situation and the 2019 state budget is eight months late from its constitutional deadline and it should have been passed before the fiscal year’s end so that we implement it,” Kanaan said in an interview with Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).