Speaker Nabih Berri is likely to kick off an initiative to reconcile tense ties between Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat and Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Wednesday.

The efforts of the finance ministry have accelerated to complete Lebanon’s 2020 draft state budget in order to pass it on time unlike the 2019 budget that was passed eight months late.

Grand Sunni Mufti of the Republic Sheikh Abdel Latif Deryan met on Tuesday with King Salman bin Abdel Aziz during a ceremony held at the Royal Court at the Mina Palace for senior officials who performed Hajj this year, the National News Agency said.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi held a meeting with Interior Minister Raya al-Hasan in the summer patriarchal residence located in Dimane where discussion focused on Rahi’s position regarding the ISF’s “practices” with detainees, the National News Agency reported on Tuesday.

ِA Lebanese man identified as Hussein Fsheikh plunged into his death in an attempt to rescue two drowning men in a river in Guinea.

Head of the Higher Relief Committee Maj, Gen. Mohammed Kheir announced that Guinean authorities officially informed him that the body of a teenager who drowned in the Konkouré River while trying to save two people from drowning belonged to Lebanese Hussein Fsheikh.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri arrived in Washington at dawn yesterday beginning a visit to the United States during which he will meet (on Thursday) with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a number of US officials, according to a statement issued by the Premier’s office.

Deputy Prime Minister Ghassan Hasbani of the Lebanese Forces has noted that “through his actions and speeches, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil seems to have started eying the stage that will come after this presidential tenure.”

“Bassil is the foreign minister of Lebanon and the head of a political movement. Period,” Hasbani said in an interview on al-Jadeed TV.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Monday deplored “the Israeli army’s practices against unarmed Palestinians” at the al-Aqsa mosque compound.

“I strongly condemn this army’s attack against worshipers at the al-Aqsa mosque compound on Eid al-Adha,” Geagea said in a tweet.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat received Monday morning a phone call from President Michel Aoun.

A statement issued by the PSP said the talks tackled the “general situations.”

Prime Minister Saad Hariri arrived at dawn Monday in Washington on an official visit.

“He will meet with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a number of U.S. officials on Thursday,” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said.