The newly-appointed U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert held her first meeting in Lebanon on Monday.

“It is a great privilege to have arrived in Beirut in my new capacity as U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon. I am extremely honored to have met with His Excellency, caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, to mark the beginning of my first round of consultations with Lebanese officials,” she said after the meeting.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has “dropped his mask” and “let no one dream of reaching a moment when Lebanon would have a supreme guide,” Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has said.

“Which Lebanese constitution article stipulates that prior to every presidential election, the parliament speaker would call for a dialogue table attended by the blocs to consult over the presidential vote? Today Berri has dropped his mask,” Geagea said in an interview with the al-Markazia news agency.

Speaker Nabih Berri has been calling for dialogue over the presidential vote “as has been the norm,” and a norm in Lebanon is “stronger the constitution,” Hezbollah’s top MP Mohammad Raad has said.

“Michel Suleiman was elected after a dialogue session and Michel Aoun was elected after a dialogue session,” Raad added.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said he was flexible and responsive to the Quintet's requests as he was asked to replace a presidential "dialogue" initiative with "consultations."

"Consultations, communication, meeting, and talks are all synonyms for dialogue," Berri told French special envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian and the five ambassadors of Qatar, France, Egypt, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

Israeli Education Minister Haim Biton has said that "a military campaign must be launched in the north to oust Hezbollah and the residents of southern Lebanon beyond the Litani River."

He added: "I believe that this goal can be achieved because the situation in Gaza does not require the presence of three army divisions."

Iran’s acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani began an official visit to Lebanon on Monday by meeting with caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib. He later met with Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

Bagheri Kani replaced the late foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who died last month in a helicopter crash in Iran along with president Ebrahim Raisi and other passengers.

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the newly appointed United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, arrived Saturday in Beirut. Hennis-Plasschaert will serve as the Head of Mission of the United Nations Office of the Special Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCOL).

“It is an honor to continue my service with the United Nations, here in Beirut,” the new Special Coordinator said. “In the interest of peace, security and stability in Lebanon and the wider region during this critical period, I look forward to closely cooperating with the Lebanese authorities and all partners in Lebanon and the international community to further the implementation of resolution 1701 (2006),” she added.

An Israeli drone on Saturday targeted a motorcycle on a road in the Marjeyoun district town of Majdal Selm, causing two casualties, the National News Agency said.

An Israeli tank meanwhile targeted the border town of Kfarkila with a shell as Israeli interceptor missiles exploded over Mays al-Jabal.

Israeli strikes on south Lebanon have killed four people including a paramedic and a woman, Hezbollah and affiliated rescuers said, with Hezbollah adding it had fired dozens of rockets in retaliation.

Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, has traded regular cross-border fire with Israel since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday condemned what he called "foreign vetoes and interference" in Lebanon’s presidential file, stressing that Hezbollah is keen on finalizing the presidential vote and that "dialogue is the only way."

“We are very keen on finalizing the domestic junctures and dialogue is the only way,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech commemorating the late Hezbollah-affiliated Shiite scholar Sheikh Ali Kourani.