President Michel Aoun held a meeting at Baabda Palace on Thursday with French President Emmanuel Macron's advisor for North Africa and the Middle East, Patrick Durel, the Presidency said in a tweet.

The talks were held in the presence of French Ambassador to Lebanon, Anne Grillo, and focused on the bilateral relations between the two countries, on the French initiative towards Lebanon and the formation of a cabinet, it said.

A new batch of U.S. sanctions on Lebanon is reportedly expected to hit the country before the official end of term of President Donald Trump in January, the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper reported on Thursday.

In order to benefit from a French-planned humanitarian aid conference for Lebanon, the crisis-hit country better line up its government before the end of November, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported Thursday.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday described Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil’s stance on the latest U.S. sanctions as “brave,” as he warned Israel against waging “any aggression.”

Two Qatari military planes carrying two field hospitals arrived Wednesday afternoon in Lebanon.

Lebanon and Israel, still technically at war and with no diplomatic ties, held a new round of maritime border talks Wednesday under U.N. and U.S. auspices to allow for offshore energy exploration.

A joint statement released by the United States and the Office of the U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon described the talks as "productive."

Outgoing Foreign Minister Charbel Wehbe urged the international community on Wednesday to help return more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees back to their homeland.

French President Emmanuel Macron's advisor for North Africa and the Middle East, Patrick Durrell, is scheduled to arrive in Beirut Wednesday, in an effort to revive the French initiative, media reports said.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday described the latest anti-corruption U.S. sanctions on Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil as “right and proper and will deliver a good outcome” for the Lebanese people.

The Hizbullah member convicted of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri should receive a life sentence, even though he remains at large, prosecutors said Tuesday.