Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil said from Washington, there is a Lebanese consensus on the role of the Resistance and Hizbullah in fighting the Israeli enemy and defending Lebanon, but stressed that preserving stability and fighting terrorism are the responsibility of the Lebanese Army, the National News Agency reported on Wednesday.

In an interview in Washington with Henri J. Barkey, Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and replying to a question about Hizbullah's intervention in regional affairs, Bassil said he does not “speak on behalf of Hizbullah.”

Speaker Nabih Berri warned on Wednesday of an Israeli pretext to trigger a new war against Lebanon after the latest reports about decisions made by the Israeli government and the Knesset to approve the demarcation of the maritime-economic border with Lebanon, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Wednesday.

Berri voiced warnings of the “new Israeli assault against Lebanon's sovereignty,” and said “what has been revealed by Israeli media was not arbitrary, but rather reveals a path taken by Israel in a bid to control Lebanon's gas and oil wealth within Lebanese economic borders.”

Britain tightened airline security on flights from Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa on Tuesday, banning laptops and tablet computers from the plane cabin following a U.S. security warning.

Passengers flying directly to Britain from Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Turkey will be required to place those devices and large phones into hold luggage, a UK government spokesman said.

Israel has concluded that Hizbullah's top military commander Mustafa Badreddine was killed in Syria last year by rivals within the Iran-backed Lebanese group, Israel's military chief said Tuesday.

David's Sling, a joint U.S.-Israeli missile interceptor meant to counter medium-range missiles possessed by Hizbullah, will be operational in early April, completing Israel's multi-layer defense system, a senior Israeli air force official said on Monday.

This marks the completion of Israel's missile defense system, he said.

Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said on Monday that a tax item that imposes levies on financial institutions is what thwarted the approval of the wage scale in 2014, adding that banking officials have suggested giving the government one billion dollars in return for scrapping the item.

“We have been offered one billion dollars in return for scrapping a tax item that targets Lebanon's banks,” said Khalil in a press interview.

Lebanon's army intelligence staged a security day and carried out several raids in the Bekaa region in east Lebanon including residences of drug kingpin Nouh Zoaiter, VDL (100.5) said on Monday.

The army raided a number of houses that belong to Zoaiter in Hay al-Sharawneh but they did not find him, added VDL.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri received on Sunday evening at the Center House, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea where talks focused on several pivotal issues.

The meeting which lasted two hours and included a working dinner, tackled the parliamentary electoral law, Lebanon's 2017 budget plan, the long-stalled salary scale and the general situation in the country, Hariri's media office said in a statement on Monday.

A meeting between several political parties was held late on Sunday at the Foreign Ministry in Beirut to tackle the thorny parliamentary electoral law in a bid to agree on a new format that meets approval of all political parties before the due date, LBCI said on Monday.

The meeting which was described as “positive” included Foreign Minister and Free Patriotic Movement leader Jebran Bassil, representatives from al-Mustaqbal Movement, Hizbullah and AMAL, LBCI said.

Speaker Nabih Berri assured on Monday that approving the wage scale is a rightful people's demand which will eventually be approved, but stressed that efforts must first focus on agreeing an electoral law for the upcoming polls because it is more pressing, An Nahar daily reported.