US Acting Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield arrived in Beirut on Wednesday coming from occupied Palestine, and held talks with Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, the National News Agency reported.

Satterfield left the meeting at the foreign ministry without making a statement. But unnamed ministry sources said talks have focused on Lebanon's oil and land rights, assuring the US official will continue his “shuttle talks” between Lebanese and Israeli officials regarding the oil dispute.

President Michel Aoun held talks on his second day in Iraq with Speaker Salim al-Jabburi and Iraqi Vice President Iyad Allawi, Aoun's media office said on Wednesday.

President Michel Aoun first held talks with al-Jabburi in the presence of Iraqi and Lebanese delegations.

Head of the Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc MP Walid Jumblat on Wednesday slammed the “brutality” of the Syrian regime wondering when will the suffering of Syrian people end.

The United States mediation to solve a dispute between Lebanon and Israel over oil drilling rights and a controversial separation wall “have reportedly failed,” media reports said on Wednesday.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Tuesday criticized Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's latest remarks on Lebanon's gas dispute with Israel.

“Yesterday, we heard in one of the speeches that the only strength that we can rely on is the resistance... This means that the State would cease to exist,” Geagea warned.

Iraqi President Fouad Massum surprised President Michel Aoun with a birthday cake during the Lebanese leader's official visit to Baghdad on Tuesday.

The surprise came at the end of a lunch banquet.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi met with Saudi ambassador to Lebanon Walid al-Yaacoub in Bkirki on a protocol visit after receiving his duties, the National News Agency reported on Tuesday.

“I was honored to meet His Eminence the Patriarch who affirmed that links between Saudi Arabia and religious and spiritual officials in Lebanon are profound and fundamental,” said al-Yaacoub after the meeting.

President Michel Aoun traveled on an official two-day visit to Iraq on Tuesday at the invitation of his Iraqi counterpart Mohammed Fouad Masum.

French envoy Pierre Duquesne in charge of ongoing preparations for the Paris IV investment conference aimed at jumpstarting Lebanon's economy has arrived in Beirut, media reports said on Tuesday.

Duquesne is the interministerial delegate for the Mediterranean in charge of the preparations of Paris IV, also referred to as the Cedar Conference, which is set to be held on April 5 in the French capital.

A meeting was held Monday at the headquarters of the Tashnag Party in Bourj Hammoud to discuss the electoral alliances in the Metn district.

The National News Agency said the meeting was attended by Tourism Minister Avedis Guidanian of Tashnag, independent MP Michel Murr, ex-minister Elias Bou Saab of the Free Patriotic Movement, Tashnag Secretary-General MP Hagop Pakradounian and the FPM's candidate for Metn Eddie Maalouf.