António Guterres said the international community will back Lebanon “for what we believe will be a speedy recovery of this country, making it again the center of the Middle East.”

The U.N. Secretary-General made his comments on Saturday following a meeting in Beirut with Lebanon’s newly elected president Joseph Aoun. A new prime minister was also named to form a government following Aoun's election last week.

Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam met with President Joseph Aoun on Friday evening to brief him on the outcome of his non-binding consultations with lawmakers and his talks with Speaker Nabih Berri.

Speaker Nabih Berri on Friday announced that "the course is headed toward a solution" as to the issue of the Shiite Duo's participation in the new government.

French President Emmanuel Macron held a bilateral meeting Friday at the Baabda Palace with Speaker Nabih Berri, the National News Agency said.

Contacts intensified over the past hours, through mediators between Baabda and Ain el-Tineh, in order to contain the dismay of Hezbollah and Speaker Nabih Berri, the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Friday.

Speaker Nabih Berri’s political aide MP Ali Hassan Khalil admitted overnight that Hezbollah and the Amal Movement did not discuss with President Joseph Aoun -- prior to his election -- the issue of who will be the country’s new premier.

Syria’s new security authorities on Friday seized a weapons shipment that was intended to be smuggled into Lebanon through illegal border crossings, Syria’s new authorities said.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called for accelerated implementation of a November ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah in south Lebanon.

"There have been results... but they must be accelerated and long-lasting. There needs to be complete withdrawal of Israeli forces, and the Lebanese army must hold total monopoly of any weapons" in south Lebanon, he said at a joint press conference with his Lebanese counterpart Joseph Aoun, ahead of a January 26 deadline for the truce implementation.

Speaker Nabih Berri on Friday said he held a “promising” meeting with Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam.

Lebanese judge Tarek Bitar resumed his investigation into the deadly 2020 Beirut port blast on Thursday, charging 10 people including security, customs and military personnel, a judicial official said.

The fresh charges come after a two-year hiatus in the investigation into the August 4, 2020 explosion that killed more than 220 people, injured thousands and devastated swathes of Lebanon's capital.