President Joseph Aoun said Wednesday that “the difficult circumstances that Lebanon went through have become behind us.”

“We’re looking forward to the coming days with a lot of optimism,” Aoun added, during a meeting in Baabda with the head of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, Badr Mohammed Al-Saad.

Turkey's intelligence service thwarted a remote attack using pagers last year in Lebanon, days after similar attacks by Israel killed dozens and wounded thousands, including members of Lebanon's Hezbollah group, a Turkish daily and officials said.

Daily Sabah reported that 1,300 pagers and 710 chargers rigged with explosives were confiscated inside a cargo shipment at Istanbul Airport that was on its way to Beirut from Hong Kong.

Hamas said one of its commanders was killed in an Israeli strike on the south Lebanon city of Sidon on Wednesday, the latest attack despite a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said the dawn strike killed one person.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas will visit Lebanon on May 21 to discuss extending Beirut's authority to Palestinian camps, a Lebanese government official said Tuesday, as Abbas's office confirmed the date.

The visit comes after President Joseph Aoun said late last month authorities were working to "withdraw (unauthorized) heavy and medium weapons from all Lebanese territory", and that he would raise disarmament of the camps with Abbas.

After the UAE allowed its citizens to travel to Lebanon, the fellow countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council are inclined to follow suit in the near future, Lebanon’s Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Tuesday.

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert has commenced an official visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, her office said on Tuesday.

Turkish intelligence services intercepted a shipment of over 1,300 pagers in Istanbul that were en route to Lebanon, just days after an Israeli Mossad operation targeting similar devices held by Hezbollah members, Turkish news outlet Sabah reported Tuesday.

The country’s main political parties have agreed on forming a unified electoral list for Beirut’s municipal vote, Al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Among the roughly 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide, many are keenly anticipating the upcoming Vatican conclave at which members of the College of Cardinals will elect a successor to Pope Francis. At a grocery shop in Beirut, a university in the United States, a Black township in South Africa and other far-flung locations, The Associated Press asked nine of them what they hope to see from a new pope.

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There are U.S. pressures on Israel to withdraw from the five border points and fully implement the ceasefire agreement to enable the Lebanese Army to extend its control over the whole of the South, informed sources said.