Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Wednesday that the Taif Agreement “focused on the importance of extending state authority over all of its territory using its own inherent forces,” stressing that this is “the baseline without which no true state can emerge.”

“Taif did not separate political reform from the restoration of state authority, the dissolution of militias, and the restriction of legitimate force exclusively to state institutions," said Salam at a ceremony marking the centenary of the Lebanese constitution.

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem announced Tuesday that "Israel will not be able to remain in southern Lebanon," stressing that Israeli withdrawal is the only "solution."

"The liberation of southern Lebanon is before our very eyes, and Israel will not be able to remain in southern Lebanon, even if it takes time," said Qassem in a televised address.

Discussions at the Lebanese-Israeli military meeting on October 20 will focus on mechanisms for establishing verifiable security arrangements, media reports quoted U.S. State Dept. officials as saying.

“This includes forming a verification committee to ensure that the area south of the Litani River is free of armed appearances, positions and facilities, alongside monitoring Israeli withdrawals and the deployment of the Lebanese Army,” the reports said.

Lebanese officials are discussing with the Lebanese delegation to the talks with Israel several ideas and strategies aimed at bypassing the U.S.-Israel conditions that seem to be crippling to Lebanon, a media report said.

Saudi envoy Prince Yazid bin Farhan will visit Lebanon next week and is expected to discuss the situation in the country with Lebanese officials, in light of regional developments and the upcoming Gulf-European summit scheduled for October 24 in Riyadh, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The visit will also take place around a week before the new round of Lebanese-Israeli military negotiations, which is scheduled to take place in Tampa, Florida, between the 20th and 22nd of this month.

Speaker Nabih Berri is pushing for pacification between Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Hezbollah and a large segment of southerners, sources close to Berri told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

This was reflected in Salam's visit to Nabatieh on Friday and was reaffirmed in his televised statements on Sunday evening on NBN, the TV channel affiliated with the Amal Movement led by Berri. In these statements, Salam affirmed the government's position on the Israeli withdrawal from the South and its commitment to restoring state authority and activating its institutions in the region.

Energy Minister Joe Saddi, who was named by the Lebanese Forces, announced Tuesday his boycott of cabinet sessions until the government takes the “needed decisions” in the thorny electricity file.

On Israel's border with Lebanon where Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets and drones, previous backers of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu say they are rethinking how they will vote in the first election since the war.

"Many I know were right-wing and were Bibi supporters, and today they're not," said plant nursery owner Sigal Malachi, using a nickname for Israel's longest-serving premier.

British soldiers from the Support Company of the 4th Battalion of The Royal Regiment of Scotland (SCOTS), based at Dhekelia Garrison Cyprus, have arrived in Lebanon to join their Lebanese counterparts in the Air Assault Regiment in a landmark military exercise aimed at strengthening bilateral defense ties and enhancing operational readiness, the British embassy said on Monday.

The parliamentary subcommittee tasked with studying draft electoral laws held a session in parliament on Monday, after Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab was accused of calling for such a session to deviate attention from the “priority” of resolving the issue of Hezbollah’s arms.

"The session has concluded, contrary to what was expected by some, especially after what we heard in the media and on social platforms regarding attacks and criticisms over my call for this subcommittee to convene and discuss the laws listed on the agenda, which relate to the electoral law,” Bou Saab said after the session.