President Michel Aoun on Monday pledged developmental projects for the Chouf and Aley regions as he stressed the importance of Christian-Druze unity there.

“Lebanon cannot be united without the unity of Mount Lebanon, which is characterized by its Druze and Christian wings,” Aoun said in a meeting with Arab Tawhid Party chief Wiam Wahhab and a Druze delegation at the summer presidential palace in Beiteddine.

President Michel Aoun on Monday stressed that Washington has not “pressured” his political camp in connection with the recent crisis over the Qabrshmoun incident.

“The United States has not pressured us and our character does not tolerate any pressures in the first place,” Aoun told reporters in a chat at the summer presidential palace in Beiteddine.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Monday announced that he would endorse any initiative put forward by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

“We will positively respond to any initiative by Patriarch al-Rahi to safeguard Mount Lebanon,” Bassil said after meeting al-Rahi in al-Diman.

A senior Hizbullah official on Sunday stressed that all U.S. sanctions and actions against his group are futile.

“All the U.S. talk we are hearing here and there has no value… and all their sanctions, threats and campaigns will not change any of the facts on the ground,” the head of Hizbullah’s executive council Sayyed Hashem Safieddine said.

Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan on Sunday called on Prime Minister Saad Hariri to stop sending what he called “overseas messages.”

“I call on PM Saad Hariri not to send us overseas messages, because the country can no longer bear them. Those who await overseas messages are the weak ones and not us,” Arslan said at a memorial service marking 40 days since the death of Rami Salman and Samer Abi Farraj -- two bodyguards of State Minister for Refugee Affairs Saleh al-Gharib who were killed in a clash with Progressive Socialist Party supporters in the Aley town of Qabrshmoun.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his wife Lara hosted at their ranch near Washington DC the U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife for a lunch banquet, Hariri's press office said on Sunday.

Hariri's sons Hussam and Abdul Aziz and his daughter Louloua, former Minister Ghattas Khoury and his daughter Jenny as well as Rafik Bizri attended.

Interior Minister Raya el-Hasan said in a tweet on Saturday that Rafik Hariri International Airport has recorded its highest number of departures on Friday assuring that all the improvements needed will be implemented

President Michel Aoun received at the summer presidential residence in Beiteddine a delegation of the Progressive Socialist Party dispatched by Druze leader Walid Jumblat who is outside the country, the National News Agency reported on Saturday.

NNA said the delegation comprised PSP ministers, lawmakers, religious and political figures.

Speaker Nabih Berri said it was crucial for everyone in Lebanon to unite efforts in order to pass a difficult economic downdraft as he called for an economic and reform emergency plan, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri said that he heard support from the US administration for the Lebanese army, pointing out that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo renewed during their meeting the US support for Lebanon politically and economically and the US keenness on resolving the land and maritime border demarcation issue. He said the US assistance to the Lebanese army continues and “we are negotiating the financial and economic assistance”.