Foreign Minister Nasif Hitti announced on Monday his resignation from office in protest at the performance of the government, warning a lack of vision and a will to make changes risked turning the country into a “failed state.”

Hitti submitted his resignation to the prime minister and left the government house without making any comments. He later issued a strongly worded statement explaining his resignation, saying the government had failed to manage the crisis and implement the required reforms to save the country.

France has reportedly conveyed “assurances” that the ruling in the murder trial of ex-PM Rafik Hariri will not be followed by international procedures against Hizbullah, and that France has played a major role to make that possible, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Monday.

A UN-backed court is to deliver its judgement Friday on four suspected Hizbullah members tried in absentia for former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri's murder in a 2005 Beirut car bombing.

The Lebanese Shiite movement does not recognise the Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon, denies all the accusations and has refused to hand over the accused.

The special tribunal trying the four suspects accused of the 2005 assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik Hariri delivers its verdict on August 7. 

A UN-backed tribunal will give its verdict Friday on the 2005 murder of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri, but questions will remain over a long and costly trial whose suspects remain at large.

The Israeli army is “ready for all scenarios” should Hizbullah stage an attack on Lebanon’s border, a spokesman said.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday said those who "truly care" about Lebanon would not reject his call for the country's neutrality.

Information Minister Manal Abdul Samad stressed Sunday that Lebanon "will not ditch the West, especially France."

Deputy PM and Defense Minister Zeina Akar has stressed that the government was not "absent" during and after Monday's flare-up on the Lebanese-Israeli border.

The Israeli army on Saturday sent a spy balloon over the Lebanese border town of Houla, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.