A fake explosive belt was found on Saturday inside a garbage sorting plant in the northern city of Tripoli, media reports said.

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said that Lebanon had been “hijacked” by Hizbullah and could only prosper if the party disarmed.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri condemned assaults targeting Saudi Arabia, the latest of which was the launching of a ballistic missile from the Yemeni territory, the Premier's media office said.

Grand Mufti of the Republic Sheikh Abdul Latif Deryan threw his support behind Prime Minister Saad Hariri saying “we stand by your side, regardless of everyone else's opinion,” the National News Agency reported Friday.

Lebanese-born American adviser to members of the US Congress Walid Phares replied on Friday to Prime Minister Saad Hariri's comments about Hizbullah's weapons reminding of several encounters when the party “utilized its weapons in the capital Beirut and elsewhere.”

“Mr PM Hariri, Hizbullah has invaded Beirut and attacked Mount Lebanon with heavy weapons in 2008, assassinated politicians, officers and citizens as of 2005. They used their arms against Lebanese. They should be disarmed under UNSC 1559,” said Phares on his Twitter page on Friday.

The “strained” relationship between the Lebanese Forces and al-Mustaqbal Movement which “suffered some flaws” recently, has “greatly recovered” in the past days, the Kuwaiti Asseyasah daily reported on Friday.

LF sources told the daily that “channels of communication have been opened between the two parties in order to settle things down and restore normal ties,” affirming strong relations between the two.

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels said Thursday they fired a ballistic missile at Saudi Arabia and hit a military target, in the second such attack this month, after threatening to retaliate over a crippling blockade.

"We confirm the success of our ballistic missile trial, which hit its military target inside Saudi Arabia," the Huthi-run Al-Masira television channel said. 

Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed on Thursday that dialogue with political parties following the latest political crisis was chosen for the sake of Lebanon's stability, assuring that he was not held against his will in Saudi Arabia and that Hizbullah has a “political role in Lebanon and won't use its arms inside.”

In an interview with French weekly magazine Paris Match, Hariri said he will resume his role as Prime Minister and that he wanted the world to understand that Lebanon “can no longer tolerate the interference of Hizbullah in regional conflicts.”

Residents of the remote border village of Tufail in the Bekaa Valley started returning to their homes on Thursday after being forced to leave three years ago due to infiltration by the Syrian army and Hizbullah fighters.

Speaker Nabih Berri will reportedly discuss with Hizbullah the need to respect a policy of non-interference in regional conflicts until President Michel Aoun returns back from a trip to Italy, the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily reported on Thursday.