British Ambassador to Lebanon Ian Collard has written a farewell op-ed reflecting on his one year as the UK’s envoy to Lebanon.

Below is the op-ed’s full text as received from the British embassy:

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati stressed Friday the need to speed up the government formation, before President Michel Aoun's term comes to an end.

"The tight timeline and the upcoming junctures require us to take proactive steps and to form a new government quickly, before the presidential election," Mikati said in a statement.

President Michel Aoun urged the Lebanese on Friday to learn from Eid al-Adha the meaning of sacrifice.

"If only some (politicians) would sacrifice their interests for the sake of their homeland and the happiness of the Lebanese people," Aoun said in a statement on social media.

A fifteen-member delegation of Ambassadors and senior officials from the European Union (EU) visited UNIFIL’s headquarters and area of operations on Thursday, including a briefing at the Blue Line.

UNIFIL’s Head of Mission and Force Commander, Major General Aroldo Lázaro, received the delegation in Naqoura and thanked the EU bloc for its support.

The members of the U.N. Security Council announced Thursday that they “took note of the appointment of Najib Mikati as the new designated Prime Minister on 23 June, as well as the presentation by the latter of his government line-up to the President of the Republic of Lebanon on 29 June.”  

An Israeli drone has killed a man who hails from the Syrian town of Hadar in Quneitra's northern countryside, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Senior Hezbollah official Sayyed Hashem Saffieddine on Thursday hit out at Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati and caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib without naming them, in connection with their criticism of Hezbollah's sending of three drones on Saturday towards the Karish gas field.

The French judiciary has charged three French citizens with attempting to bribe Lebanese judges in one of the files related to the probe into Libya's financing of Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign.

Israel expects “major progress” in the negotiations over sea border demarcation with Lebanon, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation quoted a senior source as saying.

President Michel Aoun had said overnight that the negotiations “will be finalized soon” and that "the solution will satisfy everyone."

Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Thursday that the three drones that Hezbollah launched toward the disputed Karish gas field on Saturday were Iranian.

“Hezbollah used unmanned aerial vehicles made in Iran," Gantz said as he accused Hezbollah of carrying out missions for Iran.