Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Saturday reiterated that the LF will support Army Commander General Joseph Aoun’s possible presidential nomination if “it turns out that his chances are high.”

“He has run the military institution in a good way and has improved it and acted as a real statesman at its head. And despite pressures from the most senior officials, he did not accept to prevent the army from performing its missions -- which are preserving the border and domestic security,” Geagea said in an interview with the al-Markazia news agency.

The head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, announced Saturday that his group does not “wish for war” with Israel but is “ready and prepared for it,” in connection to the standoff over the maritime border.

“We loudly tell the Israeli enemy that the gas in our exclusive economic zone is our right and we have the priority over the entire world to make benefit of our rights in our waters and gas,” Raad said during a Hezbollah ceremony in the southern town of Adshit.

The Gathering for Sovereignty, which is a Lebanese opposition movement seeking to “liberate Lebanon from Hezbollah’s arms and hegemony,” has called on the Lebanese to join what it called “globalized Arabism,” in the wake of the Jeddah summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Saudi Arabia’s leadership.

“The Gathering for Sovereignty laments the absence of the Lebanese state and political forces and parties from the Arab workshop of development and modernization,” it said in a statement.

The United States and Saudi Arabia have affirmed their “continued support for Lebanon’s sovereignty, security and stability,” in a joint statement issued after a meeting in Jeddah between U.S. President Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The two sides also stressed their support for “the Lebanese Armed Forces that protect its borders and resist the threats of violent extremist and terrorist groups.”

The United States announced Friday that it "remains committed to facilitating negotiations between Lebanon and Israel to reach a decision on the delimitation of the maritime boundary."

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil urged Friday for a dignified return of the Syrian refugees to their homeland.

Lebanon has one of the world’s highest numbers of refugees per capita and currently hosts over 1 million Syrians who fled the decade-old conflict. Officials say the influx has cost Lebanon billions of dollars and further damaged its crippled infrastructure while it struggles with a financial meltdown.

French Ambassador Anne Grillo has stressed the uniqueness of Lebanon and its importance to France and to President Emmanuel Macron, as it called for a verdict on the Beirut port blast.

Grillo said that France is contributing to reviving Lebanon through direct and indirect negotiations. She added that France has offered €200 million to Lebanon, since 2020.

MPs Ashraf Rifi, Michel Moawad, Fouad al-Makhzoumi and Adib abdel Massih announced Friday the program of their new parliamentary bloc, Tajaddod.

Rifi demanded the hand over of any illegal "Lebanese or non-Lebanese weapons" to the state, considering that Hezbollah's arms have lost their resistance character.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat suggested Thursday that “the Egyptian gas and the Jordanian electricity will not come in these circumstances.”

“Away from the fantasies of top advisors and the mysterious promises of some major embassies, can the energy portfolio be given to a guaranteed side and a single (power) plant be built, instead of burning the (central bank’s) reserves and eventually running out of them and plunging into the unknown?” Jumblat tweeted.

Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel on Thursday lamented that Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah “has once again declared himself president, prime minister and army chief at the same time.”

“He is ensnaring Lebanon’s people in a new adventure whose price they might pay without taking their permission,” Gemayel tweeted, referring to Nasrallah’s threatening of Israel with military escalation if a future deal over the disputed maritime border does not come in Lebanon's favor.