U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein will arrive in Beirut on a previously unannounced visit and it seems that the trip is linked to the meetings on Lebanon that were held Friday at the Elysee Palace, prominent parliamentary sources said.

“It also comes against the backdrop of French President Emmanuel Macron’s continuation of his endeavor to spare Lebanon a broad war,” the sources told the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper in remarks published Tuesday.

The dispute between Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil and Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab has resulted in the latter’s official separation from the FPM, a media report said.

“Bou Saab, who was one of the most prominent hawks of the FPM’s parliamentary bloc over the past years and a key adviser to ex-president Michel Aoun, is no longer part of the FPM,” senior FPM sources told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that “all efforts must be focused on finalizing the presidential juncture as soon as possible.”

As for remarks by some about serious efforts to wrap up the presidential file by May at the latest, Berri told al-Joumhouria newspaper that “what’s needed is the election of a president -- yesterday rather than today and today rather than tomorrow.”

Ministers met Tuesday at the Grand Serail in a ministerial, judicial and security meeting to discuss the Syrian refugee crisis.

The killing of Lebanese Forces Jbeil coordinator Pascal Sleiman earlier this month by a Syrian gang has triggered a backlash against Syrian refugees.

European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi has met in Beirut with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

Várhelyi also met Monday with Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdallah Bou Habib, and the Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces Joseph Aoun.

The five-nation group for Lebanon intends to pressure Speaker Nabih Berri in order to end the protracted presidential vacuum, a media report said.

“This will materialize in the meeting that will be held in Ain el-Tineh between Berri and the committee’s members,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Monday.

Jewish people mark on Monday the start of Passover, a celebration of freedom, and around many holiday tables in Israel chairs will stand empty for hostages still held captive in Gaza.

The week-long Jewish festival, also known in Hebrew as the "holiday of freedom", celebrates the Israelites' liberation from Egyptian slavery, as told in the Bible.

Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has reassured residents of northern Israel that the "moment of truth" is approaching in terms of how to proceed militarily against Hezbollah.

"This is the operations front with the greatest and most urgent challenge, and this is how we must treat it," said Gantz.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil is continuing his “openness initiative” towards the Shiite Duo, a media report said.

It seems that Bassil’s steps “are much bigger than the political-electoral alliance at the elections of the Beirut Order of Engineers and Architects, the repeated meetings between Bassil and Speaker Nabih Berri, and the resumption of meetings with Hezbollah,” ad-Diyar newspaper reported on Monday.

France has presented a new proposal regarding the border conflict with Israel to caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, al-Akhbar newspaper said monday.

Mikati had met Friday in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron who told him that France would do "everything in its power" to stop violence spiralling between Lebanon and Israel.