After a nearly six-month pause, Lebanon and Israel on Tuesday resumed indirect talks with U.S. mediation over their disputed maritime border.

The five-hour negotiations round was held "amid total secrecy and away from the media spotlight," Lebanon's National News Agency said.

The choice of resignation is “one of PM-designate Saad Hariri’s choices” but he “has not yet taken such a decision and he is still clinging to the French initiative,” MP Hadi Hbeish of Hariri’s al-Mustaqbal bloc said on Tuesday.

“Should options be imposed on PM-designate Hariri that do not fit with his choices, he will be inclined to step down,” Hbeish told al-Jadeed TV.

MP Georges Adwan of the Lebanese Forces on Tuesday warned Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh and the caretaker government against using the central bank’s obligatory reserve to finance ration cards for citizens who will be affected by the looming lifting of subsidies.

“The caretaker PM and every minister who maintained the previous subsidization scheme as well as every trader who benefited from the money of depositors and every border official who did not perform his duty must be held accountable before the people,” Adwan said in a statement from parliament.

The lead investigator into Beirut’s port blast, Judge Tarek Bitar, requested the satellite images of the port as part of his investigations into last year’s massive explosion.

The Canadain federal government has tasked a committee with investigating money laundering, gambling and drug smuggling operations through casinos in Vancouver, in which a network reportedly affiliated with the Iranian regime and Hizbullah are involved, al-Arabiya network revealed on Tuesday.

Two associations said on Monday they had filed a legal complaint against Lebanon's central bank governor Riad Salameh whom they accuse of fraudulently amassing a large fortune in Europe.

The Sherpa NGO, which specialises in fighting financial crime, and the "Collective of victims of fraudulent and criminal activities in Lebanon" said they were also targeting Salameh's brother Raja, his son Nadi, his nephew as well as a close associate at the central bank, Marianne Hoayek, in the case.

The Internal Security Forces on Monday arrested a gang of ten Syrians for stealing electricity cables and wires from the public network of the Electricity du Liban leading to extended power outages in the Mountainous areas of Chouf and Aley.

President Michel Aoun met at Baabda Palace the members of Lebanon’s delegation leading the indirect sea border talks with Israel, as the talks prepare to resume this week, the National News Agency reported on Monday.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is reportedly expected to limit his upcoming meetings in Lebanon with President Michel Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri, the Saudi Asharq el-Awsat newspaper reported on Monday.

Lebanese authorities have arrested two brothers suspected of smuggling drugs in pomegranate shipments to Saudi Arabia, leading the kingdom to ban Lebanese fruits and vegetables, the outgoing interior minister said Sunday.

Mohamed Fahmi told local MTV television station during a tour to the Lebanon-Syria border that Interpol is also following a third suspect. He gave no further details, saying only that the case is still under investigation.