Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri “has not yet decided to step down” although “this is one of the serious option on the table,” an ex-PM has said.

The Israeli army on Saturday announced that it overnight thwarted the “biggest smuggling attempt of the past few years on the Lebanese-Israeli border.”

Free Patriotic Movement head Jebran Bassil has accused PM-designate Saad Hariri of “slaughtering the country,” while lamenting that “those who wanted to burn the presidential tenure have burned the entire country.”

French Ambassador to Lebanon Anne Grillo and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea conducted trilateral meetings with counterparts in Saudi Arabia this week to discuss the situation in Lebanon.

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim stressed Friday that he is “under the law,” days after Judge Tarek al-Bitar requested a permission to prosecute him in the port blast case.

Caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi has rejected to grant the judiciary the permission to prosecute General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim in the port blast probe, judicial sources told LBCI TV on Friday.

The families of the port blast victims on Friday scuffled with army troops outside the Ain el-Tineh palace as MPs met inside to study Judge Tarek al-Bitar’s request for lifting the parliamentary immunity of three lawmakers.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Thursday hailed the historic ties with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, during a ceremony in Bkirki.

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari on Thursday called on the political parties to “put Lebanon’s interest first” as he criticized parties whom he said are trying to ruin Lebanon’s relations with the Arab countries.

A small plane crashed Thursday afternoon in the Keserwan town of Ghosta, leaving three people dead, in a rare such accident in the Mediterranean country.

Annahar newspaper said the jet fell in Ghosta’s Ain Waraqa area.