Health Minister Jamil Jabaq asserted that international organizations and donors have realized through his work since taking office, that he does not belong to Hizbullah although the party called him to participate in the government, the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper reported on Friday.

The Council of Ministers on Thursday failed to reach an agreement over a recommendation by the telecom minister to annul a 2014 decision granting postpaid cellphone subscribers 60 minutes free of charge.

Information Minister Jamal al-Jarrah told reporters that the issue was postponed for further assessment.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced Thursday that “the best decision we have taken in Lebanon is carrying out steps to address the deficit and austerity measures before the eruption of the crisis.”

“Other countries were obliged to take tougher, severer and more painful measures because they waited for the crisis to happen before beginning reforms,” Hariri said at the beginning of an ordinary Cabinet session at the Grand Serail.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri received on Thursday at the Grand Serail the Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides, in the presence of former Minister Ghattas Khoury, the Premier’s office said

The top diplomats of Lebanon and neighboring island nation Cyprus said Thursday they were working together towards a deal over adjacent oil and gas exploration zones in the Mediterranean.

Both countries hope to exploit resources on either side of their shared maritime border, and Lebanon this month opened tenders for three of its four blocks along that frontier.

Interior Minister Raya al-Hasan criticized the lawsuit filed by Military Prosecutor Peter Germanos against the Information Branch of the Internal Security Forces, describing it as a “big mistake,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday.

President Michel Aoun on Thursday said he told visiting Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos that Lebanon will not accept to join any Mediterranean gas consortium comprising Israel.

“I thanked the president for his country's stance on Jerusalem and its stance on the Syrian Golan. I also stressed that the U.S. president's decision to recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights and his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital represented a blatant violation of the foundations of international legitimacy and the U.N. Charter,” Aoun said at a joint press conference.

Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil affirms “perseverance to follow an approach that develops a balanced and reformative budget that includes reduced figures for the deficit we suffer,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday.

MP Ibrahim Kanaan, the head of the Lebanese finance parliamentary committee, announced Wednesday that he held “good and constructive” talks with U.S. officials.

“Building the state and its institutions is what leads to political stability and not sanctions,” Kanaan told MTV after meeting U.S. lawmaker Eliot Engel at the U.S. Congress.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday warned that the U.S. sanctions and measures against Iran and its allies in the region “will not remain without a response,” as he dismissed reports about possible sanctions against Speaker Nabih Berri and other Hizbullah allies as “mere intimidation.”

“Our choices are open but we will act calmly, with a cool head and at the right time, in all battlefields and arenas,” Nasrallah said in a televised address marking Hizbullah's 'Day of the Wounded'.