Several people were injured Wednesday as fuel tanks exploded at the al-Shahrouq station in the Dinniyeh district town of Bakhoun.

The blast fully destroyed the two-story station amid ambiguity over the fate of its five workers, the National News Agency said.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday hosted Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat over a “reconciliation” dinner following their latest spat.

Hariri and Jumblat had met Tuesday for the first time since their latest war of words. That meeting was held at the headquarters of the Druze religious authority in Verdun on the sidelines of condolences over the death of Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Ali Zeineddine.

Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan on Wednesday held talks with Defense Minister Elias Bou Saab in Yarze, in the presence of State Minister for Refugee Affairs Saleh al-Gharib.

“It was on occasion in which we consulted with Minister Bou Saab on the security situation and the precise ambush to assassinate a minister in the Lebanese government,” Arslan said after the meeting, referring to the deadly incident in Qabrshmoun in which two of Gharib's bodyguards were killed and a third was wounded.

President Michel Aoun on Wednesday announced that “in Lebanon there is a state that must preserve its image.”

“It also has a judiciary that is in charge of protecting citizens and enforcing the law on violators and criminals,” the president added.

Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat on Wednesday blamed the deadly Qabrshmoun incident on Free Patriotic Movement leader Jebran Bassil's “provocative rhetoric in all regions,” urging President Michel Aoun to put an end to the FPM chief's “juvenile actions.”

“The provocative rhetoric in all regions is meaningless and it was behind yesterday's explosion,” Jumblat said after a meeting for the Druze confessional council, referring to Sunday's clash in Qabrshmoun.

Marada chief Sleiman Franjieh on Wednesday urged a State role in calming the tense atmosphere in the country, saying a “strong state is the one capable of removing hatred from the souls.”

Seventy-three kg of cannabis were seized on Wednesday in an encampment of Syrian refugees in Baalbek in the eastern Bekaa valley, the National News Agency reported on Wednesday.

Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil of the AMAL Movement emphasized on Wednesday that Free Patriotic Movement chief and Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil is “most welcome in South Lebanon,” affirming that “AMAL is keen on the country’s stability.”

Khalil said in a televised interview on OTV: “Minister Bassil is most welcome in South Lebanon,” a region with a majority of Shiite inhabitants.

A meeting between Speaker Nabih Berri and US Acting Secretary of State David Saterfield “was not positive,” and Israel “did not agree” that border demarcation talks with Lebanon be held under the auspices of the United Nations, media reports said on Wednesday.

Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil on Tuesday defended his latest tour of the Aley district, stressing that he does not a “permission” from any party to go to any Lebanese region.

“What happened in Qabrshmoun is rejected and we have a responsibility to contain what happened and no one wants strife,” Bassil said after the weekly meeting of the Strong Lebanon bloc, referring to an armed clash involving the convoy of State Minister for Refugee Affairs Saleh al-Gharib which resulted in the death of two bodyguards and the injury of two people.