U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein held talks Friday with Lebanese leaders over sea border demarcation and the gas dispute with Israel.

“I think we’re making very good progress and I’m very hopeful that we can reach an agreement,” Hochstein said after meeting President Michel Aoun in Baabda.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has confirmed his role in convincing Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati to refuse to add six ministers of state to the new government.

"I am proud that I was able to do so," Berri told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Friday.

Families of the Beirut port blast victims stormed Friday the Justice Ministry, to protest a decision by caretaker Justice Minister Henri Khoury to name an alternate investigator in the Beirut port blast case.

The protesters were forced to leave the building by security forces members. They couldn't manage to reach the minister's office.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday scheduled a plenary parliamentary session for September 14, 15 and 16.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Thursday accused the Presidency and its allies of seeking to commit as much violations as possible prior to the end of President Michel Aoun’s term, in connection with the controversy over a decision to name an alternate judicial investigator in the Beirut port blast case.

Lebanon’s Economic Committees, a grouping of Lebanon's main businessmen and owners of major firms, on Thursday proposed an economic recovery plan that entails recovering 74% of the funds of bank depositors.

President Michel Aoun has hinted that he might eventually choose not to leave the Baabda Palace upon the end of his presidential term on October 31.

The Foreign Ministry on Wednesday noted that Lebanon has not requested the omission of U.N. resolutions 1559 and 1680 from a U.N. resolution that has extended UNIFIL’s mandate, denying media reports in this regard.

“Lebanon respects all U.N. Security Council resolutions and abides by them, and it is out of the question for it to request, and it has not requested, the omission of the mention of the aforementioned resolutions,” the Ministry said in a statement.

The Higher Judicial Council has agreed to a proposal from caretaker Justice Minister Henri Khoury to name an alternate investigator in the Beirut port blast case, sparking political and judicial controversy after the move was seen as illegal and politically motivated.

Dozens of relatives of the victims of the blast protested Wednesday against the decision, calling the move an attempt by the country's political class to prevent justice into one of the world's largest non-nuclear explosions.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Tuesday hit back at both Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Speaker Nabih Berri and said that the FPM “will not recognize the legitimacy of the resigned government” should there be a presidential vacuum.

“We stress that the caretaker cabinet cannot convene or practice the president's powers. This would lead to constitutional chaos,” Bassil warned in a press conference that followed a meeting for the FPM’s political council.