Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Monday said the military drill that Hezbollah carried out Sunday in the South is “totally rejected at a time that the Lebanese are struggling night and day and every moment to rebuild their state and regain Arab and international confidence in this state.”

“Hezbollah addressed a clear message to all Lebanese and the Arab and international communities by saying that ‘no matter how much you try and seek, we will not allow the rise of a real state in Lebanon,’” Geagea said.

The FPM will not agree with the Lebanese Forces and the opposition on any candidate except a candidate from the FPM, MP Alain Aoun said.

Aoun considered that only an FPM candidate would not be considered provocative to Hezbollah.

The Lebanese government “rejects any act that infringes on the state’s authority and sovereignty, but the issue of Hezbollah’s arms requires comprehensive national consensus,” caretaker PM Najib Mikati said on Monday, after a Hezbollah military drill in the South drew condemnation from the party’s domestic rivals.

“This should be among the priorities of the coming stage,” Mikati told U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka, after she asked him about the drill during a meeting at the Grand Serail, the National News Agency said.

Free patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has said that he will remain open minded, responsive and flexible regarding the presidential file.

"If you reject a name, we can discuss another, there are many candidates who can reach national or Christian agreement," Bassil said from Paris.

The latest negotiations between the parties that oppose Suleiman Franjieh’s presidential nomination have failed to reach any result, ad-Diyar newspaper quoted “trusted sources” as saying.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Saturday lamented that the Lebanese “have not helped each other.”

Arab nations on Friday expressed their “solidarity with Lebanon” in the closing statement of the 32nd Arab Summit that was held in the Saudi city of Jeddah.

The “presidential vacuum” and the “failure to elect a new president” have “aggravated” Lebanon’s crisis, caretaker PM Najib Mikati told the 32nd Arab Summit in Jeddah on Friday.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati held a meeting Friday in Jeddah with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, on the sidelines of the 32nd Arab Summit that will kick off later in the day.

During the meeting, al-Sisi stressed his “continuous support for Lebanon and for the revival process in it,” expressing hope that a new president will be elected as soon as possible, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.

Lebanon on Friday received an Interpol notice for the country's embattled central bank governor who failed to show up in Paris earlier in the week for questioning in a key corruption case, Caretaker interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said Friday.

A French investigative judge Tuesday issued an international arrest warrant for Salameh after he didn’t show up for questioning.