President Joseph Aoun has been surprised by not receiving any response from the U.S. or Israel regarding his announcement that Lebanon is willing to hold negotiations with Israel, informed sources said.

“Aoun was expecting U.S. contacts, but Washington considered that what he declared did not require action, and is still calling on Lebanon to take practical measures reflecting its commitment to the arms monopoly plan,” the sources told al-Akhbar newspaper.

Speaker Nabih Berri’s political aide MP Ali Hassan Khalil has visited Tehran for talks with a number of senior Iranian officials.

Khalil met with Iranian Supreme National Security Council chief Ali Larijani, Shoura Council Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

Army Commander General Rodolphe Haykal will hold several meetings in Washington related to the Lebanese Army’s deployment plan and the repeated Israeli attacks, the PSP’s al-Anbaa news portal reported on Monday.

Haykal will hold meetings with U.S. officials on Tuesday, al-Anbaa added.

The new U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa on Monday met with President Joseph Aoun and Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji and submitted his credentials to them, kicking off his mission in Lebanon.

A Presidency statement said Issa relayed U.S. President Donald Trump's greetings to Aoun and his keenness on boosting U.S.-Lebanese ties and developing them in all fields.

The Israeli army on Monday fired six mortar shells at the eastern outskirts of the southern border town of Aitaroun.

Homes and schools were earlier evacuated after the Lebanese Army informed Aitaroun's municipality about a possible Israeli strike.

Israeli media reports have said that a new confrontation with Hezbollah is definite and just "a matter of time", claiming that the group is rebuilding itself.

The reports said that the Lebanese army is failing to disarm Hezbollah and that Iran is trying to rebuild its military capabilities, which could lead to a confrontation with Iran and Hezbollah.

A Saudi technical committee led by Saudi envoy Prince Yazid bin Farhan arrived Monday in Lebanon to discuss lifting the ban on Lebanese imports.

A senior Saudi official had announced last week that his country plans to imminently bolster commercial ties with Lebanon after Lebanese authorities demonstrated efficacy curbing drug smuggling to the kingdom over the past months.

Israel's military said Monday it had killed a Hezbollah operative in southern Lebanon, a region that has witnessed several attacks despite the ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed group.

"Yesterday evening (Sunday)... The IDF struck and eliminated Hezbollah terrorist Muhammad Ali Shuweikh in the Mansouri area in southern Lebanon," the military said in a statement.

The U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon said Israeli soldiers shot at its troops on Sunday in the south of the country, while Israel's military said it mistook blue helmets for "suspects" and fired warning shots.

The Israeli military blamed "poor weather conditions" and said it had not deliberately targeted U.N. troops.