U.S. President Donald Trump has voiced fresh remarks about the prospects of disarming Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“They’ve made an agreement that they’re gonna disarm. We’re gonna have to assume that they’re going to, but you know it’s not their nature to disarm, it’s not exactly their nature,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News.

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem has met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who has been visiting Lebanon since Thursday, Hezbollah said.

The two men discussed “the events in the region and the world and their repercussions and impact on all of the region’s countries,” Hezbollah’s Media Relations Department said in a statement.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has said that, based on his talks with American officials, he can tell that what the U.S. wants for Lebanon is the establishment of an actual state that will sign a peace agreement with Israel.

Geagea told Sky News Arabia, in an interview published Thursday, that an actual state cannot be built unless Hezbollah is disarmed, and that Hezbollah can be disarmed without resorting to force, because the group is currently weakened and "does not have the ability to confront anyone".

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has accused the U.S. of sidelining France from the ceasefire monitoring committee in order to monopolize the entire decision-making in the committee alongside Israel.

The U.S.-led committee monitoring the ceasefire, which includes representatives from the United States, France, Lebanon, Israel and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), had met this Wednesday. The meeting in Naqoura in south Lebanon did not include civilians, which Speaker Berri described as a result of the American attempt to monopolize the decisions of the committee.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stated overnight that the role of the Resistance (Hezbollah) had ended in 2000 with the liberation of south Lebanon from Israeli occupation, asserting that "what protects Lebanon today is the State and the Lebanese Army.”

“We want one state for all Lebanese; the decision of war and peace must be in the hands of the State alone, and the exclusivity of arms must serve all citizens and not be directed against anyone," Salam added, in an interview on MTV.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday said he welcomes “the encouraging announcements by the Lebanese authorities to restore the State’s monopoly on weapons,” a day after the Lebanese Army announced the completion of the first phase of its arms monopolization plan.

“This process must be pursued resolutely. The second phase of the plan will be a decisive step,” Macron said in a post on X.

Top officials from the European Union will visit Lebanon Friday, where the army a day earlier announced it had completed the first stage of a plan to remove weapons from nonstate groups, including Hezbollah.

The visit by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the President of the European Council António Costa was part of a regional tour.

A consortium comprising TotalEnergies, QatarEnergy and Italy’s Eni on Friday signed with Lebanonj an agreement for gas exploration in Block 8 off the Lebanese coast. The ceremony took place this morning at the Grand Serail.

The agreement was signed on the Lebanese side by Minister of Energy and Water Joe Saddi.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who arrived Thursday in Beirut at a crucial time, met Friday with President Joseph Aoun and his counterpart Youssef Rajji.

Araghchi's visit comes as Lebanon's army announced it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm Hezbollah south of the Litani river.

Israeli airstrikes on Friday targeted several areas in south and east Lebanon, with the Israeli army claiming that they struck alleged Hezbollah sites, a day after the Lebanese Army said it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm the group in the south.

In the south, the strikes hit open areas near Kfarfila, Sujud, Houmine al-Fawqa and Deir al-Zahrani in the Iqlim al-Tuffah region and the al-Bissariyeh area near Sidon. The raids also targeted the outskirts of the town of al-Nabi Sheet in the Bekaa and the al-Jabbour hills in west Bekaa.