U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed Tuesday that Lebanon is a sovereign country and that Washington would not negotiate with Iran over it.

“Why would we negotiate Lebanon with Iran? What does Iran have to do with Lebanon? I mean they can claim whatever they want, but Lebanon is a sovereign country,” said Rubio in response to a reporter’s questions.

G7 foreign ministers agreed on "the need to avoid a security void" in Lebanon after U.N. peacekeepers pull out, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Tuesday after a meeting of the group in Paris.

Lebanon on Tuesday began new talks with the International Monetary Fund on a bailout to help the country emerge from the worst economic crisis in its history, with progress stalled by its inability to pass banking reforms.

Speaker Nabih Berri has rejected any political targeting of the army and its commander, General Rodolphe Haykal, emphasizing that "this act is a crime and a grave sin."

"As I have previously affirmed on more than one occasion, the army is a red line," he added, in remarks to al-Joumhouria newspaper published Tuesday.

Defense Minister Michel Menassa voiced Tuesday his support for the army, which he said has been recently targeted.

"All the army asks is that no Lebanese — intentionally or unintentionally — stabs it in the back or undermines its sacrifices and the blood of its martyrs," Menassa's office said in a statement.

The head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc MP Mohammad Raad has said that it is “deeply regrettable” that some Lebanese still maintain “their racist and factional mentality, hoping to monopolize power in their country.”

In an op-ed in al-Akhbar newspaper marking Hezbollah’s “Martyr Day”, Raad said those Lebanese parties are “delusionally expecting support from the Zionist occupiers and their tyrannical American backer.”

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday to discuss security arrangements in southern Lebanon before the U.N. peacekeeper mandate expires on Dec. 31.

The talks focused on replacing the current peacekeeping force with a lighter monitoring system.

Free Patriotic Movement leader Jebran Bassil called on Tuesday for full Israeli withdrawal and an exclusive state monopoly on weapons as two conditions for Lebanese sovereignty, as he met with President Joseph Aoun in Baabda.

"Sovereignty requires Israel's withdrawal and the Lebanese state's commitment to a monopoly on weapons," Bassil said.

President Joseph Aoun discussed Lebanon’s security situation on Tuesday with Defense Minister Michel Menassa, stressing the urgent need to preserve national stability.

Aoun praised the military's vital role in in preserving public order and implementing state decisions.

The British Embassy in Beirut held a service Sunday at the Beirut Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery to commemorate Remembrance Day.