President Michel Aoun on Sunday received a phone call from his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, on the eve of binding parliamentary consultations to pick a new PM.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday reiterated his call for the State to put an end to "the proliferation of weapons."

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday announced that his party will facilitate the formation of the new government as he welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron’s call for a new political pact in the country.

“We hope the parliamentary blocs will be able tomorrow to name a PM-designate who enjoys the constitutional requirements,” said Nasrallah in a televised address marking the last day of the Shiite Ashura commemorations.

Four soldiers were injured Saturday at dawn when smugglers tossed a hand grenade at an army unit while trying to infiltrate Lebanon’s territory in Rashaya el-Wadi along the Lebanese-Syrian border, the National News Agency reported on Saturday.

The Army Command-Orientation Directorate said in a statement that clashes erupted between two smugglers and army units in said area.

Seven individuals are still missing after the colossal Beirut port blast that killed nearly 180 individuals on August 4, injured over 6,000 and left more than 300,000 people homeless, the Lebanese army said on Saturday.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea in an interview with Lebanese al-Modon newspaper on Saturday, said the US regularly meets with international partners who share the same desire to see Lebanon and its people march towards prosperity, noting that Hizbullah’s activities in Lebanon “serve its own interest.”

The UN on Friday renewed its peace mission in Lebanon for a year but reduced its troop capacity and requested that Beirut grant access to tunnels under the border with Israel.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for  Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker will travel to Kuwait, Qatar, and Lebanon August 28-September 4, 2020, the U.S. State Department said on Friday.

“On September 2, the Assistant Secretary will travel to Beirut, where he will meet with civil society representatives, discuss U.S. assistance efforts in the wake of the August 4 Beirut port explosion, and urge Lebanese leaders to implement reforms that respond to the Lebanese people’s desire for transparency, accountability, and a government free of corruption,” the State Dept. said in a statement.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat mockingly suggested Friday that the binding parliamentary consultations to choose a new premier have been scheduled for Monday “out of courtesy.”

“After the delay in calling for consultations -- which violates the Taef Accord, as if some political forces are experimenting with a new constitution… -- the consultations were scheduled for Monday out of courtesy, seeing as the French president will arrive on Tuesday,” Jumblat tweeted.

Gunshots were fired heavily in the air Friday during the funeral of a 14-year-old teenager killed in Thursday’s sectarian clashes in Khalde.

“During the firing in the air at the funeral, some gunshots were fired at the Chebli Center, the site of yesterday’s clash, as the army sought to contain the situation,” the National News Agency said.