A number of officials from the Lebanese Forces party on Sunday criticized President Michel Aoun’s response to controversial remarks by a top Iranian general.

“Where is the General Michel Aoun whom I know regarding freedom, sovereignty and independence?” ex-minister Richard Kouyoumjian, head of the LF foreign relations dept., tweeted.

The Free Patriotic Movement on Sunday stressed that any support for Lebanon should not be “conditional on giving up national sovereignty,” in an apparent response to remarks by a top Iranian general.

In a statement issued by its media committee, the FPM emphasized “the right of the Lebanese to defend their sovereignty, land and resources in the face of any aggression, be it by Israel or other parties.”

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday called on President Michel Aoun and PM-designate Saad Hariri to take a “responsible and brave decision” regarding the formation of the new government.

“The government will only be formed if the president and the PM-designate meet and agree on the formation of a special government enjoying true independence and democratic and pluralistic balance,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on Sunday suggested that the Hizbullah-led camp should form the new government on its own.

“In my previous statement to al-Anbaa, I said that Iran was waiting to engage in dialogue with the new U.S. administration and that a government of specialists is some sort of heresy, which sparked an uproar,” Jumblat tweeted.

President Michel Aoun on Sunday stressed that Lebanon has sovereignty over its border and territory, in an apparent response to controversial remarks by a top Iranian general.

“The Lebanese have no partner in preserving their country’s independence, its sovereignty over its border and territory, and the freedom of its decision,” Aoun said in a tweet.

Lebanese leaders are still incapable of finding common ground to form a much-needed government in a country crippled by multiple crises, adding to an aggravating coronavirus outbreak, media reports said Saturday.

Celebratory gunshots to mark the New Year killed a Syrian woman in eastern Lebanon and damaged a parked aeroplane at Beirut airport Friday, state media and a company source said.

A senior general in the Northern Command of the Israeli army reportedly said he expects “Hizbullah party” to initiate an attack against Israel in the “near future”, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat reported on Saturday.

Lebanon's Foreign Ministry on Thursday condemned in a statement the terrorist explosions that hit Yemen's Aden International Airport, shortly after a plane carrying members of the new Yemeni government landed.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea on Thursday lashed out again at the ruling authority’s paralysis and incapability to form a salvation government amid an unprecedented economic crisis in the country.