The USNS Choctaw County, an expeditionary fast transport ship affiliated with the U.S. Navy, has arrived in Lebanon for a scheduled visit, the U.S. Embassy said on Wednesday.

"This historic trip, the first visit by a U.S. Naval Ship to a Lebanese naval base, highlights the strong partnership between the United States and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF)," the Embassy said in a statement.

UNIFIL has marked the International Day of Peace with a ceremony at its headquarters in Naqoura, south Lebanon.

LBCI TV reporter Edmond Sassine has posted a tweet alleging that Hizbullah official Wafiq Safa has threatened the judge probing the Beirut port blast Tarek Bitar.

"Hizbullah through Wafiq Safa has sent a threatening message to Judge Tarek Bitar," Sassine tweeted.

The Military Intelligence arrested in Tripoli “a number of people who formed a cell supporting the terrorist Islamic State organization,” the Army Command said in a statement Tuesday.

The cell had purchased individual weapons and ammunition in order to carry out terrorist attacks.

Even though the Free Patriotic Movement granted confidence to the government, “this doesn’t mean we will support it if it doesn’t commit to its obligations,” an FPM informed source said.

The source told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Tuesday, that the “FPM will loudly oppose the government when needed.”

Progressives Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on Tuesday tweeted about Lebanon’s electricity crisis and the diesel that Hizbullah brought from Iran.

“As if everything is calculated. An announcement is made about Jordanian electricity and Egyptian gas, which is a chance for beginning to address the electricity crisis, after which comes a diesel invasion,” Jumblat tweeted.

President Michel Aoun held a meeting Tuesday in Baabda with Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib.

The Presidency said the meeting tackled the developments “after Israel tasked an American firm with offering evaluation services for the drilling of gas and oil wells in the disputed (offshore) area.”

Phillipe Lazzarini, the head of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, has said that he is “very alarmed” by two “major” security developments that happened at two Palestinian refugees camps in Lebanon over the weekend.

On the morning of September 19, protesters from the temporary housing units near the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp broke into the UNRWA construction site office, causing severe damage to the premises and to seven Agency vehicles. No one was injured.

A number of importing companies will start distributing gasoline to the local market, Georges Brax – member of the syndicate of gas stations owners – said on Tuesday.

Brax told the National News Agency that many gas stations will re-open successively and that “we will witness a remarkable improvement” in the coming days.

Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil on Monday said his bloc will grant its confidence to Najib Miqati’s government because he respected “constitutional partnership” with President Michel Aoun.

“We will give confidence because the line-up came according to the norms. The prime minister respected constitutional partnership with the President and balance in portfolios and sectarian distribution, albeit with some flaws,” Bassil said during a parliamentary session to debate the government’s policy statement.