The Parliament convened on Tuesday in its first legislative session to discuss and ratify the 2019 state budget amid heightened security measures as retired servicemen rallied in Downtown Beirut protesting budget articles that would affect their benefit pay.

In the past few days Hizbullah reportedly has deployed troops in new areas in Western Qalamoun in the countryside of Damascus, after pulling these forces back from different Syrian areas where its troops were positioned, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat said on Tuesday.

Amid protests expected by the retired servicemen in Nejmeh Square, the perimeter of the House of representatives was turned on Tuesday into a “buffer zone” in preparation for the launch of legislative meetings devoted to discussing and ratifying the 2019 state budget.

Police set up temporary barricades and brought in barbed wire to prevent the protesters from approaching the parliament building.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat announced Monday that he is open to solutions regarding the crisis created by the deadly Qabrshmoun incident.

Asked whether the solution entails his acceptance of referring the case to the Judicial Council, Jumblat said no one should “jump to conclusions” before the end of the probe, stressing that the investigation must involve the two parties.

Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil on Monday said the FPM will vote in favor of the 2019 state budget and that “it is not populist like other parties who approved it in Cabinet and decided to vote against it in parliament.”

“We have started the reforms in the 2019 budget, but it is not the reformist budget that we were aspiring for,” Bassil said after the weekly meeting of the Strong Lebanon bloc.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday announced that he is “exerting strenuous efforts to launch negotiations” on the demarcation of the maritime border between Lebanon and Israel.

“We will eventually have to take decisions over this issue in Cabinet and boosting the capabilities of the Lebanese naval forces will play a central role in protecting our national oil and gas resources,” Hariri said, during a visit to UNIFIL’s maritime headquarters at Beirut’s port, where he was welcomed aboard Brazilian frigate UNIAO by UNIFIL chief Maj. Gen. Stefano Del Col.

Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan on Monday accused the Progressive Socialist Party of “building a state within the state” in the Chouf and Aley regions.

“The right of our martyrs will be taken, the era of hegemony over arenas and regions is long gone, people have freed themselves of malice and deprivation, and domination has ended,” a defiant Arslan tweeted, referring to the victims of the deadly Qabrshmoun incident.

Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz on Monday held talks in Jeddah with Lebanon’s ex-PMs Tammam Salam, Fouad Saniora and Najib Miqati.

During the meeting, the monarch stressed “the importance of preserving Lebanon within its Arab neighborhood,” noting that “any harm against the Sunni community in Lebanon is harm against us in the kingdom.”

Communication did not stop last week between the country’s top officials regarding the political crisis that has been sparked by the deadly Qabrshmoun incident, media reports said.

“Proposals have been discussed as to separating between the Qabrshmoun incident and the government’s work,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Monday.

A fresh exchange of tirades erupted Sunday between a minister from the Progressive Socialist Party and another from the Free Patriotic Movement.

“It was wrong to allocate the Ministry of the Displaced to a movement that does not believe in the (Mount Lebanon) reconciliation and to a person who does not believe in coexistence but is rather living the grudges of the past, the tumors of the present and the paranoia of the future,” Industry Minister Wael Abu Faour of the PSP said in a statement.