Hezbollah’s disarmament is still topping the U.S. agenda for Lebanon, a Western diplomatic source said.

Quoting a U.S. official, the source told al-Joumhouria newspaper that “the situation in Lebanon will not remain as it is” and that Washington believes that “it will certainly witness a drastic transformation and a promising future.”

Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri has said that “contrary to expectations, Cabinet’s decisions did not lead to a rift in the country” regarding the arms monopolization plan.

“The army does not want to use force against any group to carry out the mission it has been tasked with,” Mitri added, in an interview with Russia’s Sputnik radio network.

An Israeli strike on the eastern city of Baalbek has killed at least two people, the health ministry said.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported Wednesday that the strike was carried out by an Israeli drone.

The Lebanese Army said on Wednesday that it has seized 64 million captagon pills in the country's east in one of the largest operations against the illicit stimulant in the country.

Lebanon has faced pressure from Gulf states to counter the production and trafficking of drugs, particularly the amphetamine-like narcotic captagon, for which the conservative monarchies are a major market.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem on Wednesday made a video message to the wounded of the 2024 Israeli pager attacks, marking the first anniversary of the bloody operation that resembled the opening strike of an all-out war against Hezbollah.

He described the wounded of those attacks at the “pioneers of insight, the key to hope, and the love of eternal life in obedience to God Almighty.”

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack on Wednesday extended gratitude to Lebanon’s Druze leader Walid Jumblat over his role in the pacification efforts in Syria’s Sweida, the scene of recent sectarian bloodshed.

“Sincere thanks to Walid Jumblatt for his wisdom and unparalleled stature in harnessing the collective views of valued Druze leaders, who live within various man-made boundaries and borders, but nevertheless are committed to a God that knows no borders or boundaries,” Barrack said in a post on X.

U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus will visit Lebanon on Sunday to “look into the course of the plan that has been devised by the Lebanese Army as an executive mechanism for the government’s decision on monopolizing arms,” prominent sources said.

Ortagus will also take part in a meeting for the ceasefire monitoring committee on Monday, the sources told al-Akhbar newspaper.

Hezbollah’s decision to illuminate Beirut’s iconic Pigeons’ Rock (Rock of Raouche) with pictures of its slain leaders Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Sayyed Hashem Safieddine to mark their first assassination anniversary has stirred controversy in the country.

A Hezbollah spokesman said the move would take place from 5pm to 7pm on September 25, accompanied by “sea activities.”

The Finance Ministry said Wednesday afternoon that active and retired servicemen can receive their monthly financial aid as of Thursday, after retired servicemen blocked the Ring, Saifi and Beshara al-Khoury roads in Beirut to protest their living conditions and a delay in the payment of their compensations.

Preparations are underway for Pope Leo XIV to travel to Turkey and Lebanon at the end of November in what would be his first trip abroad, Vatican sources told AFP.

The two-stage trip would likely last just under a week, AFP understands. The Vatican does not normally confirm official visits until closer to the time.