Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Thursday announced that the Lebanese will witness a "huge effort" by the government in the coming days that is aimed at “protecting Lebanon from the storm that it is going through.”

“We are passing through difficult days, especially at the economic level,” Hariri said during a ceremony to honor pilgrims at the Mohammed al-Amin Mosque in central Beirut.

Two Lebanese Forces ministers on Thursday raised questions about Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s latest remarks about the conflict with Israel.

Describing as “dangerous” Nasrallah’s statement that "there will be no such thing as international borders" if Israel attacks Lebanon, Minister Richard Kouyoumjian urged the government during a Cabinet session to voice a firm stance “clinging to the Blue Line and to U.N. resolution 1701.”

A group of fifteen students from Lebanese universities visited the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) from 1 to 5 September 2019 as part of a three-day study visit to The Hague.

Senior Hizbullah official Sheikh Nabil Qaouq on Thursday boasted that “the resistance today enjoys unprecedented national and official consensus,” referring to the period that preceded and followed Hizbullah’s military response to Israel’s latest strikes.

“The resistance has managed to prove its strength and will through carrying out the operation against the Israeli enemy in the middle of the day in order to protect Lebanon,” said Qaouq, who is a member of Hizbullah’s Central Council.

Pierre Duquesne, the French inter-ministerial delegate for the Mediterranean who is in charge of following up on the implementation of the CEDRE conference resolutions, stressed Thursday that none of the donors has decided to block funds earmarked for Lebanon.

“I have not heard donors telling me that they will refrain from offering funds to Lebanon. It is true that they have some skepticism, which has surged in recent weeks and months, but they are still ready to offer support,” Duquesne said at a press conference wrapping up a visit to Lebanon.

Several activists placed an anti-Turkey banner Thursday morning on the gate of the Turkish embassy in Rabieh, amid a row between Lebanon and Turkey over the 1516-1918 Ottoman administration of Lebanon.

“You too bug off”, says the banner, which shows a Turkish flag defiled with what appears to be the angel of death. The slogan emulates an anti-Israel term that Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah used in a speech in recent days.

Pierre Duquesne, the French inter-ministerial delegate for the Mediterranean who is in charge of following up on the implementation of the CEDRE conference resolutions, on Wednesday called on Lebanon to speed up the implementation of key financial and economic reforms.

“I left with an impression that the premier is moving forward on the path of the necessary transformations for the Lebanese economy within the framework of the CEDRE conference,” Duquesne said after meeting Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander Major-General Stefano Del Col held talks Wednesday with Prime Minister Saad Hariri in Beirut, after which he described Hizbullah’s latest anti-Israel attack as a “gross violation,” stressing that the area south of the Litani River must be free of any weapons other than those of the government.

A dispute between a guard of MP Talal Arslan and a Progressive Socialist Party official escalated into gunfire Wednesday in the town of Choueifat.

“LDP member and MP Talal Arslan’s personal bodyguard Fahd Jadallah Azzam intercepted the head of the PSP Choueifat-Khalde department Marwan Abi Faraj and slammed his car into the latter’s car,” the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa news portal reported.

Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday said Lebanon can steer away from the economic crisis if it implements the items agreed at an emergency economic meeting earlier this week, adding that the 2020 draft state budget “may” be distributed to ministers at the Cabinet meeting tomorrow.