Nour never felt entirely safe as a queer person in Lebanon. But in the past few years, the 25-year-old pharmacist had begun letting his guard down, meeting with friends in LGBTQ-friendly spaces in Beirut and even performing in drag shows.

He now opts to stay at home, fearing for his safety more than ever after a wave of anti-LGBTQ hate speech that followed last month's decision by the Lebanese Interior Ministry to shut down any events aimed at promoting "sexual perversion."

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday noted that Lebanon “cannot wait for a long time to extract gas and oil while Israel is already doing so.”

“We call on the United States of America, the mediator country, to finalize the issue with Israel, seeing as Lebanon has offered the utmost limit possible in order to secure the success of the negotiations,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon.

The leaders of the U.S., the six Arab Gulf states, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq have expressed their support for Lebanon's "sovereignty, security, and stability, as well as all the reforms necessary to achieve its economic recovery."

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Saturday reiterated that the LF will support Army Commander General Joseph Aoun’s possible presidential nomination if “it turns out that his chances are high.”

“He has run the military institution in a good way and has improved it and acted as a real statesman at its head. And despite pressures from the most senior officials, he did not accept to prevent the army from performing its missions -- which are preserving the border and domestic security,” Geagea said in an interview with the al-Markazia news agency.

The head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, announced Saturday that his group does not “wish for war” with Israel but is “ready and prepared for it,” in connection to the standoff over the maritime border.

“We loudly tell the Israeli enemy that the gas in our exclusive economic zone is our right and we have the priority over the entire world to make benefit of our rights in our waters and gas,” Raad said during a Hezbollah ceremony in the southern town of Adshit.

The Gathering for Sovereignty, which is a Lebanese opposition movement seeking to “liberate Lebanon from Hezbollah’s arms and hegemony,” has called on the Lebanese to join what it called “globalized Arabism,” in the wake of the Jeddah summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Saudi Arabia’s leadership.

“The Gathering for Sovereignty laments the absence of the Lebanese state and political forces and parties from the Arab workshop of development and modernization,” it said in a statement.

The United States and Saudi Arabia have affirmed their “continued support for Lebanon’s sovereignty, security and stability,” in a joint statement issued after a meeting in Jeddah between U.S. President Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The two sides also stressed their support for “the Lebanese Armed Forces that protect its borders and resist the threats of violent extremist and terrorist groups.”

The United States announced Friday that it "remains committed to facilitating negotiations between Lebanon and Israel to reach a decision on the delimitation of the maritime boundary."

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil urged Friday for a dignified return of the Syrian refugees to their homeland.

Lebanon has one of the world’s highest numbers of refugees per capita and currently hosts over 1 million Syrians who fled the decade-old conflict. Officials say the influx has cost Lebanon billions of dollars and further damaged its crippled infrastructure while it struggles with a financial meltdown.

French Ambassador Anne Grillo has stressed the uniqueness of Lebanon and its importance to France and to President Emmanuel Macron, as it called for a verdict on the Beirut port blast.

Grillo said that France is contributing to reviving Lebanon through direct and indirect negotiations. She added that France has offered €200 million to Lebanon, since 2020.