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.

The Maronite Bishops on Wednesday lauded Lebanon’s move in filing a complaint to the United Nations Security Council against Israel’s aggression, and commended the “initiative” of President Michel Aoun in declaring a state of economic emergency in Lebanon.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri is expected to meet in Paris later in September French President Emmanuel Macron to follow on the pledged billions in loans and grants agreed at the CEDRE conference in Paris last year, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat reported on Wednesday.

Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee on Tuesday claimed that Hizbullah has set up a factory for producing precision-guided missiles near the Bekaa town of al-Nabi Sheet, saying the purported plant is part of the party’s alleged precision missile program.

“This site is of great importance to Hizbullah regarding the precision-guided missile program, that’s why Hizbullah operatives have been evacuating special and expensive equipment from it, fearing a strike on the location,” Adraee tweeted.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed Tuesday that U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 has not “fallen,” despite the latest exchange of hostilities between Israel and Hizbullah.

“The Lebanese state has diplomatically contained what happened, from the issue of the drones all the way to Hizbullah’s response,” Hariri told al-Jadeed television.

The Lebanese Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned the Turkish ambassador to protest a Turkish statement that criticized President Michel Aoun over his latest remarks about the Ottoman era.

“At the instructions of Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, the ministry’s director of political and consular affairs Ghadi al-Khoury summoned Turkish Ambassador to Lebanon Hakan Cakil in connection with the statement issued by the Turkish foreign ministry on September 1,” the Lebanese ministry said in a statement.

Pierre Duquesne, the French inter-ministerial delegate for the Mediterranean, stressed on Tuesday that the projects and reforms approved at CEDRE conference in Paris still stand, but that Lebanon needs to implement a series of reforms to convince the international community.

Israeli media reportedly said on Tuesday that Hizbullah has proven capability of targeting positions inside Israel sought to be safe by its army, Israeli Channel 12 said.

Israel sent a “spy balloon” on Monday over the border town of Mays al-Jabal one day after a border flare between Hizbullah and Israel sent security concerns high, the National News Agency reported.