Al-Mustaqbal Movement MP Ammar Houri said on Friday that the approval of the 2017 state budget was a “step in the right direction.”

“Although most of the budget has been used-up due to the fact that we are approaching the end of 2017, but this budget is a foundation for the 2018 budget which will take matters to better public financial regulation,” Houri told VDL radio (93.3) in an interview.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the Lebanese to “move towards the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559,” recalling the Lebanese government's “international commitment to disarm Hizbullah and the rest of the armed groups,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.

“The participation of Hizbullah and other Lebanese groups in the conflict in Syria violates the international resolution, the Baabda Declaration and the dissociation policy and constitutes a threat to Lebanon's stability,” said Guterres in a semi-annual report to the UN Security Council on the implementation of Resolution 1559.

The Lebanese Forces party described any future visit by a Syrian minister to Lebanon as “provocative” and “overriding” Lebanon's judicial ruling against the Syrian regime over its involvement in the deadly 2013 bomb blasts in the northern city of Tripoli, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.

“The visit of any Syrian minister to Lebanon will be just a tourist visit and a provocative one to a large segment of the Lebanese who stand surprised by the continued disregard of the judicial rulings against the Syrian regime which has been accused in the bombing of the two mosques and Michel Samaha's explosives,” LF sources told the daily.

The State Security Directorate said it arrested in the district of Hasbaya a 4-member cell comprised of Syrian nationals who had been monitoring “strategic locations with the intention of carrying out terrorist attack plots,” the National News Agency reported on Thursday.

During interrogation, the mastermind who was identified as Kh.M., confessed to having formed groups affiliated to the Islamic State organization via social media.

An Israeli bulldozer carried out digging works in Wadi Qatamoun across the town of Rmeish in the Bint Jbeil district, the National News Agency reported on Thursday.

According to NNA the bulldozer started digging works inside the border of occupied Palestinian territories adjacent to the U.N. demarcated Blue Line.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea stated that the Syrian “tutelage” has exiled President Michel Aoun back in 1990 and ordered his own detention, as he reassured that the March 14 alliance “has not died but is alive" and well.

The Lebanese Forces party stressed on Thursday that remarks made by deputy chief MP George Adwan about BDL's possible tax evasion are not aimed at indicting its governor Riad Salameh but were mere questions that needed answers, the pan-Arab Asharq al-Awsat reported on Thursday.

The Parliament convened for second day in a row to debate the country's first budget in 12 years with an earlier session on Tuesday that saw lawmakers tackle political issues instead of the country's budget.

Change and Reform bloc MP Naamatallah Abi Nasr spoke first, he said: “I urge the government to adopt the position of President Michel Aoun in line with the ministerial statement as for the displaced file.”

Papal ambassador Gabriele Caccia left Beirut Wednesday morning returning to Rome after the end of his posting in Lebanon and his appointment as ambassador to the Vatican in the Philippines, the National News Agency reported.

The Pope has appointed Caccia as apostolic nuncio in the Philippines, titular archbishop of Sepino.

The Progressive Socialist Party on Wednesday stressed keenness on preserving “reconciliation, cooperation and civil peace in the Mountain” voicing calls to shun political rhetoric with the aim of gaining popularity in the elections.