Lebanon's judiciary agreed Tuesday to the release on bail of more than $20 million of former central bank governor Riad Salameh, detained for nearly a year on embezzlement charges, judicial officials said.

Salameh, 75, who headed the central bank for three decades, faces numerous accusations including embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion in separate probes in Lebanon and abroad.

U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus said Tuesday that Lebanese authorities must put into "action" their decision to disarm Hezbollah, adding that Israel would respond in kind to any government steps.

"We're all greatly encouraged by the historic decision of the government a few weeks ago, but now it's not about words, now it's about action," she told journalists at Lebanon's presidential palace in Baabda.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar are ready to invest in an economic zone in south Lebanon near the border with Israel that would create jobs for members of Hezbollah and its supporters once they lay down their weapons, President Donald Trump's envoy to the Middle East said Tuesday.

Tom Barrack made his comments in Beirut after trips to Israel and Syria where he discussed with officials there the ongoing situation in Lebanon following this month's decision by the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year. Hezbollah's leader Sheikh Naim Qassem rejected the government's plan, vowing to keep the weapons.

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack said on Tuesday that his country would approve the extension of United Nations peacekeepers' mandate in Lebanon for one more year.

With the U.N. Security Council discussing the future of the peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL), whose mandate ends on Sunday, Barrack told journalists from Lebanon's presidential palace: "The United States' position is we will extend for one year."

Amnesty International said Tuesday that the Israeli army's extensive destruction of civilian property in south Lebanon, including after a ceasefire with Hezbollah was struck, should be investigated as a war crime.

The November 27 truce largely ended more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah that culminated in two months of open war during which Israel sent in ground troops and conducted a major bombing campaign.

U.S. envoy to Lebanon Tom Barrack and U.S. diplomat Morgan Ortagus, who arrived Monday in Beirut, had stressed in their meetings with Israeli officials the necessity of "creating positive momentum", American news portal Axios said.

Barrack and Ortagus had met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, and Israel's defense and foreign ministers in Israel on Sunday.

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem on Monday called on the government to “hold intensive sessions to discuss how to regain sovereignty through diplomacy, equipping the army and a defense strategy.”

“If we want to solve our problems in Lebanon, the start should be halting the aggression, Israel’s withdrawal, reconstruction and releasing the captives, and the government today is responsible for devising a plan for achieving this sovereignty,” said Qassem in a televised speech commemorating late religious scholar Sheikh Abbas Ali al-Moussawi.

Syria’s interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa has lamented that some in Lebanon are depicting Syria’s new authorities as “terrorists and an existential threat” while other Lebanese “want to rely on the strength of new Syria to settle scores with Hezbollah.”

“We are neither this nor that,” Sharaa added.

U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus arrived Monday in Beirut after she visited Israel along with U.S. envoy Tom Barrack.

Prior to her arrival, Ortagus lauded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement on Israel's readiness to gradually decrease its troop presence in south Lebanon in return for Lebanese steps to disarm Hezbollah.

In a meeting Monday with visiting U.S. Senators Darin LaHood and Steve Cohen, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam demanded that Israel withdraw from south Lebanon and halt its strikes on Lebanon.

Salam stressed that Israel must respect Lebanon's sovereignty and withdraw from the five hills it is still occupying in south Lebanon, enabling the Lebanese army to complete its deployment in the south. He also called for the release of Lebanese prisoners and for a halt of hostilities which would allow Lebanon to start rebuilding war-hit areas and recover from the 14-month Israeli war.