Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that “Iran is a friend of Lebanon and will remain so based on its active role in the region.”

Iran's top security chief vowed in Lebanon on Wednesday that his government would continue to provide support, after the Lebanese government ordered the army to devise a plan to disarm Tehran-backed Hezbollah.

Ali Larijani's trip to Lebanon comes after Iran expressed opposition to a government plan to disarm Hezbollah, which before a war with Israel last year was believed to be better armed than the Lebanese military.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil stressed Tuesday that “any arms outside the state are illegitimate,” adding that “the Movement adopts a clear stance on the inevitability of restricting arms and their command to the state alone without any partnership or interference.”

Nestled among shops in a bustling market in north Lebanon's Tripoli, Mohammed al-Shaar is at his workshop making traditional tarboosh hats, keeping up a family craft despite dwindling demand.

With a thimble on one finger, Shaar, 38, cuts, sews and carefully assembles the pieces of the conical, flat-topped felt hat also known as a fez, attaching a tassel to the top.

President Joseph Aoun on Tuesday stressed that the state will carry on with its latest decision on arms monopolization.

There are “contacts and consultations for pacification and curbing the responses that sometimes become irrational,” ministerial sources informed on the discussions told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, referring to the efforts aiming to contain the crisis resulting from the walkout of Shiite ministers from the latest cabinet session.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has suggested that Lebanese officials boycott a visit to the country by Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, in protest at the latest flurry of Iranian statements about the thorny issue of Hezbollah’s disarmament, al-Akhbar newspaper said.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has said that the resignation of the ministers of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement is out of the question, noting that “the sensitivity of the extraordinary situations that Lebanon is going through requires all parties to show the highest levels of responsibility and prudence.”

Speaker Nabih Berri has placed himself in a central position between the government and Hezbollah in a calculated attempt to address the concerns of the two sides, sources close to Berri said.

Hezbollah and the Amal Movement “are still showing restraint and stressing their keenness on not being dragged into a domestic problem that the U.S. and KSA are seeking and pushing for,” the pro-Hezbollah daily al-Akhbar reported on Monday.