President Michel Aoun has reportedly "refrained" from signing a decree launching preparations for the upcoming parliamentary polls because it “did not bear the signature of Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Jebran Bassil,” An Nahar daily reported Saturday.

Lebanon's Higher Defense Council convened on Friday and announced that the country will take all the possible measures to prevent Israel from violating U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 through its controversial border wall plan.

Lebanese authorities say the wall would go through 13 points disputed by Lebanon.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq and General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim on Friday dismissed a report accusing General Security of a major hacking operation as “exaggerated.”

“We discussed the issue of the report related to General Security, which is an exaggerated report,” Mashnouq said after a Higher Defense Council meeting that also tackled other issues.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday weighed in on controversy in Lebanon surrounding Steven Spielberg's newspaper drama "The Post," saying it was wrong to screen it in Lebanese theaters.

Censorship authorities had recommended the ban because the director is blacklisted by the Arab League over his support for Israel, but Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq reversed the decision, allowing it to open Thursday in theaters across the country.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday warned against any attempt to “isolate” or “defeat” any Lebanese party, as he threw his support behind the Lebanese state and army in the face of an Israeli plan to build a controversial border wall.

“It is not right to isolate or defeat anyone in this country and this country cannot be governed through majorities or minorities,” said Nasrallah in a televised address.

Lebanon thwarted jihadist plans to attack places of worship and government buildings over the holidays after gaining rare access to an Islamic State group operative, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said Friday.

Ten Syrians have died trying to flee their war-torn country into neighboring Lebanon after they were caught in a fierce snowstorm, the Lebanese Army and Civil Defense said Friday.

Free Patriotic Movement Minister of Justice Salim Jreissati replied to Suleiman Franjieh's remarks likening FPM chief Jebran Bassil to long-time head of Syria's security apparatus in Lebanon Ghazi Kanaan saying “we don't master Franjieh's rhetoric.”

A report tying Lebanon's main intelligence agency to alleged hacking operations is part of a “political campaign” targeting the General Directorate of General Security and its role in protecting the country from Israeli incursions, al-Akhbar daily quoted a senior source in the Directorate on Friday.

The Higher Defense Council will hold a meeting on Friday at Baabda Palace under the chairmanship of President Michel Aoun, attended by Army Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun and heads of Lebanon's security agencies to discuss preparations for a major donor conference (Rome II) and to determine Lebanon's security needs from participating countries, media reports said Friday.

Heads of security agenceis have reportedly developed plans and a paper including the army and security forces' needs of weapons and military equipment to be presented to the conference, well-informed sources told al-Joumhouria daily.