Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel stressed Tuesday that his party will not renounce its “principles” and “the blood of its martyrs” for the sake of any ministerial portfolio or post.

Free Patriotic Movement chief and caretaker Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil called Tuesday for liberating “the minds of politicians” from “foreign hegemonies,” in tweets marking Lebanon's Independence Day.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea announced Tuesday that the formation of the new cabinet is being obstructed by parties seeking to prevent newly-elected President Michel Aoun from implementing his presidential vision.

During a Presidential Palace reception where senior officials received well-wishers on Lebanon's Independence Day, Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri avoided shaking hands with the Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali and briefly withdrew from the reception.

Hariri blames the Syrian regime for his father's assassination back in 2005.

Lebanon celebrated Independence Day on Tuesday with several challenges facing the country, including lining-up a new cabinet after the recent election of President Michel Aoun which ended a two-year power vacuum at the post.

The country marked 73 years of independence with an official ceremony that was be staged at Shafiq al-Wazzan Boulevard in Downtown Beirut.

A Saudi delegation that arrived in Lebanon on Monday traveled back to Saudi Arabia overnight after holding talks with senior officials and congratulating President Michel Aoun on his election.

Contrary to what reports have anticipated, the delegation which included Mecca Governor Prince Khaled al-Faisal and Saudi State Minister for Foreign Affairs Nizar Madani, flew from Beirut without touching with officials on the reactivation of a halted Saudi grant for the Lebanese army, media reports said Tuesday.

Speaker Nabih Berri is adamant to be given the two ministerial portfolios of finance and public works and has stressed that he won't concede them to any other political party, media reports said on Tuesday.

Berri will not accept attempts to allot the two portfolios to any other bloc other than his own, particularly that the main political blocs have each adhered to the portfolios that were allotted to them in the previous government. The foreign ministry portfolio is allotted to the Free Patriotic Movement, the interior and the telecommunications given to al-Mustaqbal Movement, said the reports.

Lebanon is building wall near the country's largest Palestinian refugee camp to prevent jihadists from infiltrating, a military source said Monday.

President Michel Aoun on Monday called for “immunizing independence” and noted that the army has the ability to defend Lebanon's borders should its capabilities be boosted.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri stressed Monday that “Lebanon is committed to all the Saudi-led causes” as visiting Saudi envoy Prince Khaled al-Faisal announced that Lebanon should not be “an arena for Arab discord.”