President Joseph Aoun on Thursday received invitations to visit Qatar and Jordan, as he met separately in Baabda with Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi and Qatari Ambassador to Lebanon Sheikh Saud bin Abdul Rahman Al-Thani.

Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam kicked off Thursday the second day of non-binding consultations with lawmakers over the formation of the new government.

He is expected to deliver a speech after the consultations.

U.S. Major General Jasper Jeffers, the Chairman of the Cessation of Hostilities Implementation “Mechanism”, joined by French Brigadier General Guillaume Ponchin, have accompanied Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) officers today to visit LAF checkpoints in south-west Lebanon, the U.S. Embassy said.

LAF 5th Brigade assumed full control of this area last week immediately after Israeli forces withdrew. Soldiers in 5th Brigade are now “in the process of making roads and villages safe for residents to return home,” the Embassy said in a statement.

Spain's top diplomat has announced a €10 million aid package for Lebanon's army, in a boost for the armed forces who have a crucial role in implementing a fragile Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire.

"This announcement of 10 million euros for the United Nations Development Program" will contribute to "supplement the salaries of the Lebanese Armed Forces" as well as finance "solar panels and logistical aspects" of the army, Jose Manuel Albares said Wednesday during a visit to Beirut.

Celebrations erupted in several areas in Lebanon following the announcement of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Many people flooded the streets in Palestinian refugee camps, as well as cities like Sidon in the south, Tripoli in the north and Beirut’s southern suburbs. People marched or rode motorcycles, honking in celebration while waving Hamas flags.

Senior Saudi and Kuwaiti officials have expressed readiness to offer aid to Lebanon to assist it in the reconstruction process after the latest Israeli war, informed sources said.

Speaking on the sidelines of international financial meetings, the Gulf officials said such assistance should exclusively pass through the Lebanese state through a legal mechanism, the sources told al-Akhbar newspaper in remarks published Wednesday.

Hezbollah has become “a shadow of its former self” after its leadership was “eliminated” and “its terrorist infrastructure of tunnels and weapons manufacturing” was “ravaged” by Israel’s strikes, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

“Hezbollah’s battered forces have retreated north of the Litani River as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement,” Blinken said in a speech to the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri will meet Friday with Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam, a day after non-binding consultations boycotted by Amal and ally Hezbollah.

Berri told LBCI that he doubts that Amal and Hezbollah's MPs would meet Salam.

Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan called Wednesday for dropping "national consensus governments", after his bloc held with Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam non-binding consultations for forming a new government.

"We don’t want a return to the army-people-resistance equation," Adwan said. "And we want the state to extend its authority over all Lebanese soil," he added.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil announced Wednesday that the FPM “will facilitate the government formation process” and that it will not insist on retaining the energy portfolio.

“We have not asked the PM-designate for anything in the governmental issue, we’re ready to help and in our opinion the government must represent the parliamentary forces through experts,” Bassil added, following his bloc’s talks with PM-designate Nawaf Salam during the non-binding parliamentary consultations for forming a new government.