Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived Thursday in Beirut at a crucial time, as the government convened in Baadba to discuss its plan to disarm Hezbollah.

Araghshi said the main aim of his visit is to discuss "challenges" that Lebanon is facing amid ongoing Israeli occupation and attacks.

President Joseph Aoun voiced Thursday his support to the army, as cabinet convened at the Baabda palace to discuss the army's plan to disarm Hezbollah.

The army had announced, in a statement, earlier on Thursday, that it had concluded the first phase of their plan to fully deploy across southern Lebanon and disarm non-state groups, notably Hezbollah.

The Lebanese army will present in February an evaluation of the second phase of a plan to disarm Hezbollah in its monthly report to the government, Information Minister Paul Morcos said, after a cabinet session that discussed the matter.

Morcos said the army will start working on a plan for disarmament north of the Litani river that will be discussed by the government in February. He added that the army will also continue the process of weapons "containment" in other parts of Lebanon, meaning that they will not be allowed to be used or moved.

The army announced Thursday that it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm Hezbollah, covering the area between the Israeli border and the Litani River.

In a statement, the army said it had "achieved the objectives of the first phase" of its plan, with an intention to extend it to the rest of Lebanon.

After talks with U.S. President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened senior security chiefs to “present the understandings reached in Washington and review intelligence efforts, attack planning, and readiness for a possible strike in Lebanon,” Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper has reported.

Netanyahu presented “the understandings and agreements reached in Washington regarding the continued freedom of action for Israel across all arenas: Iran, Lebanon, Gaza, Syria, Yemen and the West Bank,” it said.

Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah on Wednesday lashed out at Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji over the latter’s latest remarks on Hezbollah.

“It is clear that as a militiaman who took part in civil war against the Lebanese people, he does not differentiate between his belonging to the (Lebanese Forces’ now-defunct) Military Council and his membership of the Council of Ministers,” Fadlallah said, in response to a reporter’s question.

President Joseph Aoun and First Lady Nehmat Aoun left Beirut Wednesday for Cyprus to take part in a ceremony marking Nicosia’s assumption of the presidency of the EU for the next six months.

The Presidency said the ceremony will be an occasion for a number of meetings with heads of state and participating delegations.

One person was killed and another wounded in an Israeli drone strike that targeted Wednesday a car in south Lebanon, hours after a meeting of the committee monitoring a year-long ceasefire.

Israel has intensified its strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon in recent days, saying it has struck targets from both the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group and its Palestinian ally Hamas.

Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji has said that the government’s “top priority” is Hezbollah’s disarmament, noting that the government took six months to reach a firm decision on undertaking this task.

“It was late, but the government is committed,” Rajji said in a Zoom interview with The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The United States Embassy in Beirut said Wednesday that it welcomes the reform steps undertaken by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam's government, including the Cabinet’s approval of the gap law.

In a statement, the embassy said the gap law would help restore the confidence of international financial institutions, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, in the Lebanese economy and support its recovery.