Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Thursday vowed to finalize the 2018 state budget next week.

“I will work on finalizing the state budget next week,” Hariri told MTV after a meeting for a ministerial committee tasked with studying the draft state budget.

U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield, mediating a dispute between Lebanon and Israel over offshore gas drilling rights, held talks with Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh on Thursday, LBCI said.

President Michel Aoun held talks on Thursday with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan at the presidential palace in Yerevan, Aoun's media office said.

A closed door meeting was first held between the two men followed by a meeting between the Lebanese and Armenian delegations, the media office added.

A plot to blow up a Lebanese Army bus has been thwarted, General Security said on Wednesday.

“The General Directorate of General Security has arrested Syrian national A.F.H., 24, for belonging to a terrorist group and communicating with terrorists,” the directorate said in a statement.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri emphasized Wednesday that Lebanon will not allow Israel to seize control of parts of its offshore oil and gas fields.

“Lebanon's stance is unified and coherent in terms of defending our sovereignty, oil resources and maritime and territorial borders,” Berri said during his weekly Ain el-Tineh meeting with lawmakers.

US Acting Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield arrived in Beirut on Wednesday coming from occupied Palestine, and held talks with Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, the National News Agency reported.

Satterfield left the meeting at the foreign ministry without making a statement. But unnamed ministry sources said talks have focused on Lebanon's oil and land rights, assuring the US official will continue his “shuttle talks” between Lebanese and Israeli officials regarding the oil dispute.

President Michel Aoun held talks on his second day in Iraq with Speaker Salim al-Jabburi and Iraqi Vice President Iyad Allawi, Aoun's media office said on Wednesday.

President Michel Aoun first held talks with al-Jabburi in the presence of Iraqi and Lebanese delegations.

Head of the Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc MP Walid Jumblat on Wednesday slammed the “brutality” of the Syrian regime wondering when will the suffering of Syrian people end.

The United States mediation to solve a dispute between Lebanon and Israel over oil drilling rights and a controversial separation wall “have reportedly failed,” media reports said on Wednesday.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Tuesday criticized Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's latest remarks on Lebanon's gas dispute with Israel.

“Yesterday, we heard in one of the speeches that the only strength that we can rely on is the resistance... This means that the State would cease to exist,” Geagea warned.