French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will arrive on Sunday evening in Beirut to oversee the long-awaited delivery of weapons to the Lebanese army under a Saudi financed deal.

According to An Nahar newspaper published on Friday, the delivery of the first shipment of $3 billion worth of weapons to the army will be held later on Monday during a ceremony at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport's air base.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam is expected to head to Saudi Arabia in the upcoming few days amid a war of words between al-Mustaqbal movement and Hizbullah over Riyadh's offensive in Yemen against the Shiite Huthi rebels.

Sources said in comments published in al-Liwaa newspaper on Friday that Salam will hold talks with Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Azizi and senior officials.

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri is expected to travel to Washington on Monday for a one week visit, al-Joumhouria daily reported.

The agenda of his trip is still not complete, the newspaper said Friday.

The Loyalty to the Resistance bloc highlighted on Thursday the role of the army in combating the threat of terrorism in Lebanon.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “Diligence should be exercised in following up on the army's efforts to fighting terror.”

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi discussed at Bkirki on Thursday with the ambassadors to Lebanon of the five permanent United Nations Security Council members local and regional developments.

Al-Rahi demanded the international community to facilitate the election of a new head of state, expressing support to the ongoing dialogue between the rival parties to bridge the gap.

The contempt case against al-Jadeed TV network and journalist Karma al-Khayat, accused of obstructing justice, kicked off on Thursday at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in The Hague.

Al-Khayat and al-Jadeed S.A.L. are charged with two counts of contempt and obstruction of justice under rule 60 of the Tribunal’s Rules of Procedure and Evidence.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea considered on Thursday that the Lebanese state is fragmented, expressing belief that the Saudi-led Arab coalition will head to Syria after the crisis in Yemen ends.

“The state is incomplete and will never rise amid the absence of the strategic and security decision in it,” Geagea reiterated in an interview with the Egyptian newspaper el-Yom el-Sabe.

The Lebanese army said on Thursday that it has arrested five individuals in the northern city of Tripoli's al-Beddawi area.

A military communique stated that during a raid on a sawmill and a grocery shop on Wednesday night, an army patrol apprehended two suspicious men.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement slammed on Thursday Hizbullah, accusing it of prioritizing its subordination to the Islamic Republic of Iran over the Arab identity and Lebanese interests.

The statement that was published in al-Mustaqbal newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Sunni party, lashed out at Hizbullah, stressing that the party's allegations against al-Mustaqbal movement is merely a new attempt to impose the developments in Yemen on Lebanon.

The Lebanese army clashed at dawn Thursday with al-Nusra Front fighters on the outskirts of Ras Baalbek in northeastern Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency said.

The intermittent gunbattles took place on the western side of Asal al-Wared, said NNA.