Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil said he supports Hezbollah in defending Lebanon but not in exposing it, calling for a full implementation of the ceasefire with Israel and for keeping Lebanon away from regional conflicts.

"We have lost the deterrence equation but Israel today cannot stroll in Lebanon the way it did in 1982," Bassil said in a televised interview. "There is neither defeat nor victory, but the Shiites now know that they cannot bet on other arenas and cannot continue with wrong choices."

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said Thursday that his Iranian-backed group, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, would be by Damascus’ side as Islamist-led rebels press a sweeping offensive.

The Development and Liberation parliamentary bloc led by Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday lauded caretaker PM Najib Mikati’s call for holding a Cabinet session in the southern city of Tyre.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Thursday described the ceasefire agreement reached with Israel as “a sort of an executive mechanism for the implementation of Resolution 1701.”

“Our priority is to reach long-term stability and the election of a president,” Mikati added.

The co-chair of the ceasefire monitoring mechanism, U.S. Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, held talks Thursday with Speaker Nabih Berri.

Jeffers was accompanied by a U.S. military delegation and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson.

Speaker Nabih Berri, who had called for parliament to convene to elect a president next month, is optimistic that a president will be elected on January 9, a prominent parliamentary source told Kuwaiti newspaper al-Anbaa.

The source said, in remarks published Thursday, the vote would likely be held in open sessions. "If that wasn't Berri's intention, he wouldn't have invited ambassadors to the session."

Israeli artillery shells targeted Lebanese Civil Defense crews as they were removing rubble and searching for bodies in Naqoura on Thursday.

The head of the Lebanese Forces’ dept. in Karm al-Zeitoun, Roland Murr, was killed overnight in an armed clash with the Soldiers of God group in Ashrafieh, media reports said.

The army deployed in the area afterwards and started pursuing those involved in the clash.

There is “a chance that this time” Israel will “really be able to reach a hostage deal” with Hamas, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday that Israel is “still in the middle of a war” and that Iran is its “main enemy.”