Former US Defense Secretary James Mattis accused Iran of the 2005 assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri as he highlighted the threats posed by the Persian country in the region.

Lebanese Army female soldier Aya Kh. was shot Sunday by her brother in the southern town of Rmeish.

The National News Agency said the soldier was admitted into the surgery room of the Hammoud hospital in Sidon after being shot in the chest by a gun.

MP Salim Aoun of the Strong Lebanon bloc said Sunday that the Progressive Socialist Party has lost its “bets,” stressing that no one has sought to “besiege” PSP chief Walid Jumblat in recent months.

“The PSP has lost its bets domestically and externally,” Aoun said.

Industry Minister Wael Abu Faour of the Progressive Socialist Party hoped Sunday that the meeting that was held in Laqlouq between Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil and Democratic Gathering head MP Taymour Jumblat will push the FPM leader to “reevaluate his rhetoric.”

“His rhetoric has inflamed tensions in Lebanon,” Abu Faour noted in a radio interview.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri is “a man who is as big as a nation” and he will not get entangled in “narrow politics,” a minister said on Sunday.

“He will certainly not stand idly by to watch the country sink,” Telecommunications Minister Mohammed Choucair said.

A reconciliation meeting orchestrated by Speaker Nabih Berri was held on Saturday in Ain el-Tineh between Hizbullah and the Progressive Socialist Party.

A candidate running in the Tyre parliamentary by-election race withdrew leaving only Hizbullah’s candidate, Hassan Ezzeddine, running for the district’s vacant seat.

Due to “urgent” reasons, a planned visit of Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea to the Chouf region was postponed on Saturday, his deputy said.

Minister of Defense Elias Bou Saab issued a statement on Saturday freezing all weapon permits in the southern city of Nabatieh, the State-run National News Agency reported.

After appointing the last five Constitutional Council members at a Cabinet session last month that “excluded” the Lebanese Forces, the LF stressed they “now have no more allies except those who wish to uncover and name the corrupt,” the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat reported on Saturday.