The head of Hizbullah’s parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, on Sunday admitted that the upcoming parliamentary elections will be a “very difficult” challenge to his party.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday said he discussed the thorny issue of Hizbullah’s weapons in a meeting in Cairo with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

“We talked about the issue of Hizbullah’s arms, which is not in the hands of the Lebanese anymore, and had there been a defense strategy, a part of the problem would have been solved,” al-Rahi said in an interview with Lebanon’s MTV.

Cabinet held an emergency session Saturday to discuss the growing standoff between the banking sector and some judges, after unprecedented measures were taken against some banks in recent days and weeks.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has dismissed the reports about the presence of Hizbullah fighters in Ukraine as "mere rumors and lies."

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has alleged that the Russian army has chosen around 1,000 volunteers from what it called “the so-called army of Bashar al-Assad and Hizbullah.”

“The Command of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continues to take measures to make up for the loss of personnel at the expense of foreigners. According to available information, the Russian occupiers have already picked up close to 1,000 volunteers from the so-called army of Bashar al-Assad and Hizbullah,” the General Staff said in an English-language Facebook post.

President Michel Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Miqati held a meeting Friday at the Baabda Palace to discuss the latest U.S. proposal regarding the demarcation of the maritime border with Israel.

The proposal had been submitted to Lebanon during a recent visit to the country by U.S. energy envoy Amos Hochstein.

President Michel Aoun on Friday denied any role for the Presidency in the judicial measures that have been taken against a number of banks in recent days.

“The media campaigns that escalated over the past two days, which tried to allege a role for the Presidency in the judicial measures that have been taken against several banks, are the epitome of falsification, unjust accusations and disinformation,” Aoun said.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati held a meeting Friday at the Grand Serail with Justice Minister Henri Khoury, amid unprecedented measures by some judges against a number of commercial banks.

The Association of Banks in Lebanon confirmed Friday evening that all Lebanese banks will stage a two-day strike on Monday and Tuesday in protest at the latest judicial measures against the country's biggest banks.

"This is a first step aimed at cautioning and raising awareness about the dangerousness of the current situations," ABL said in a statement, demanding "the rectification of the current irregularity, the issuance of the capital control law as soon as possible, and the approval and implementation of a recovery plan."

NAHNOO, a Lebanese non-governmental organization, launched Friday in collaboration with the U.N. Information Center in Beirut (UNIC Beirut), a campaign titled “Our Crafts, Our Identity,” to advocate for the ratification of a law that organizes and develops the crafts sector in Lebanon in line with the market needs.

The campaign will be promoted on social media and local TV stations. It aims at advocating for a legal framework for the Lebanese crafts sector to ensure much-needed economic, social, and cultural protection for craftsmen and craftswomen. It also falls within the framework of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that Lebanon is working on achieving, particularly SDGs 8 and 9 on promoting decent work, sustainable industrialization and innovation.