MP Ali Fayyad of Hezbollah’s bloc claimed Thursday that some forces did not honor understandings that allegedly preceded the election of Joseph Aoun as president.

On October 1, 2024, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) launched a new five-year $10 million activity, Empowering Local Systems in Agriculture (ELSA) in Lebanon, the U.S. Embassy said on Thursday.

The lead judicial investigator in the Beirut port blast case, Judge Tarek al-Bitar on Thursday charged 10 new suspects in the case, who include port employees and current and former security officials, Al-Jadeed TV said.

The TV network identified the suspects as port employees Marwan Kaaki and Mohammad Qassabiyeh, the security official in charge of Hangar 12 Rabih Srour, Customs chief Brig. Gen. Raymond Khoury, Customs officer Brig. Gen. Adel Francis, General Security officer Brig. Gen. Najm al-Ahmadiyeh, former General Security officers Munah Sawaya and Mohammad Hassan Mouqalled, Lebanese Army brig. gen. Marwan Eid and former army intelligence chief brig. gen. Edmond Fadel.

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.

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.