Al-Arabiya television on Tuesday quoted a Western security source as saying that Hezbollah has “re-imposed its control over Beirut’s port,” following the 2020 catastrophic explosion at the facility that killed around 220 people and devastated swathes of the capital.

President Joseph Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam unanimously agree on the need for the state to be the sole bearer of arms in the country, without “any provocation resulting from the use of the term disarmament,” political sources said.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam will visit Damascus soon with a ministerial delegation to meet with Syria's new president Ahmad al-Sharaa.

Salam told Annahar newspaper, in remarks published Tuesday, that Lebanon can turn over a new page with Syria after a "good" call he had with Sharaa.

The former government tasked the Higher Defense Council with “devising plans for removing weapons with the least possible damage” and Nawaf Salam’s government is “still endorsing the same plan and will not back down,” Minister of the Displaced and State Minister for Technology Affairs and Artificial Intelligence, Kamal Shehadeh, said.

U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for Middle East Morgan Ortagus was “excited to be back in Lebanon” to meet with President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Speaker Nabih Berri and Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji, the U.S. Embassy said.

The head of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon says the balance of force in the country has now “significantly changed” which may finally enable slow progress toward a more permanent ceasefire, “but this may still take a long time.”

Lt. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro Sáenz told the U.N. Security Council that an internal political process could be required to deal with key issues including dealing with Hezbollah fighters and other armed groups.

Israeli strikes Monday on southern Lebanon killed three people, according to the health ministry, with Israel's military saying it had "eliminated" a Hezbollah commander.

Israel has continued to strike Lebanon since the November 27 ceasefire that largely halted more than a year of hostilities with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, including two months of all-out war.

Lebanon’s top leaders Joseph Aoun, Nabih Berri and Nawaf Salam pledged to U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus that arms would be limited to the state’s hands and withdrawn from Hezbollah as an obligatory gateway for the state to extend its authority across its territory, presidential sources said.

President Joseph Aoun vowed Monday that Lebanon is committed to reforms and to Hezbollah’s disarmament, revealing that efforts to devise a "national security strategy" will begin "soon."

"Lebanon needs time and space to resolve these matters calmly," Aoun said, adding that disarming Hezbollah would happen through dialogue and communication. "Hezbollah after all is a Lebanese component and the Israeli occupation of the five hills (in south Lebanon) would not help Lebanon but only complicate the situation further."

Parliament Speaker and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri has told Deputy U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus that her past stances were not "encouraging" but said his meeting Saturday with her was "positive", al-Joumhouria newspaper said Monday.

In her last visit to war-hit Lebanon on February, Ortagus voiced from Baabda pro-Israel statements. "We are grateful to our ally Israel for defeating Hezbollah," Ortagus said, adding that the United States has set a "red line" that Hezbollah should not be a member of Lebanon's next government.