Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed Tuesday that “Iran is exerting huge efforts to restore Hezbollah through offering financial aid.”

The U.N.'s Lebanon envoy and peacekeeping force on Tuesday warned Israel's delayed withdrawal from the country violated the U.N. resolution that ended the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war and formed the basis for a recent truce.

"Today marks the end of the period set for the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces... and the parallel Lebanese Armed Forces deployment to positions in southern Lebanon," the joint statement said, adding: "Another delay in this process is not what we hoped would happen, not least because it continues a violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006)."

A statement issued Tuesday by President Joseph Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said “Lebanon has the right to use all means” to secure Israel's full withdrawal from south Lebanon, after Israeli forces withdrew from southern border towns but retained five strategic hills near the frontier.

An emotional Wafiq Safa appeared Monday evening on pro-Hezbollah al-Mayadeen, saying with tears in his eyes "we are human and we are attached to our leaders," as he described slain Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as a humble, kind and loving person.

Head of Hezbollah's Liaison and Coordination Unit Safa, like many other Hezbollah leaders, was targeted in October in Israeli airstrikes on buildings in Beirut. The strikes killed 22 people and wounded 117 others, but Safa appeared unscathed Monday, and claimed that his assassination attempt was more American than Israeli. "The U.S. has asked Israel to kill me," he said.

the government said Monday the state should be the sole bearer of arms, in a thinly veiled message on Hezbollah's arsenal that came hours ahead of a deadline to fully implement a truce with Israel.

Information Minister Paul Morcos was reading a draft of the cabinet's roadmap that must be submitted to a confidence vote in parliament so the new government can exercise its powers.

Israeli forces withdrew from border villages in southern Lebanon on Tuesday, under a deadline spelled out in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war.

The Israeli troops, however, have remained in five strategic overlook points inside Lebanon — a sore point with Lebanese officials and the militant Hezbollah group, who have maintained that Israel is required to make a full withdrawal by Tuesday.

Hezbollah on Monday condemned the vandalization of a statue honoring President Joseph Aoun in the Jarmak-Aishiyeh area in the Jezzine region, calling it a “suspicious attack” and “seditious act.”

Lebanese authorities said on Monday they had extended the suspension of inbound and outbound flights to Iran indefinitely, after originally barring Iranian planes from landing in Beirut until February 18.

Authorities have decided to "mandate the Minister of Public Works and Transport to extend the suspension period of flights to and from Iran," Lebanese presidency spokeswoman Najat Sharafeddine told reporters, without specifying when flights would resume.

The Israeli army said its forces will remain at five "strategic points" inside Lebanon beyond Tuesday, when the deadline for troop withdrawal from south Lebanon under a fragile ceasefire expires.

"Based on the current situation, we will leave small amounts of troops deployed temporarily in five strategic points along the border in Lebanon so we can continue to defend our residents and to make sure there's no immediate threat," Israeli military spokesman Nadav Shoshani told journalists on Monday.

The Israeli army will stay in five points inside Lebanon, reportedly strategic hills near the border, after its withdrawal from southern towns in line with the February 18 deadline, an Israeli political official told the Israel Hayom daily.

An Israeli official meanwhile told The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity that Israel is planning on withdrawing from Lebanon on Tuesday.