President Michel Aoun tasked Defense Minister Yaacoub Sarraf to participate in the Riyadh conference of the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition (IMCTC) of defense ministers at the invitation of Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed that his decision to put his resignation on hold paves way for political parties to realize that implementing the dissociation policy protects Lebanon from regional problems, Hariri's media office said in a statement on Friday.

“The option of delaying (the resignation) allows somewhere for all political parties to make sure that distancing (Lebanon) oneself from everything that is happening around us is the basic policy that protects Lebanon from any problems in the region,” said Hariri.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat denounced on Friday what he described as “Iranian dictates” assuring that the Lebanese are well aware of their own interests and able to address their own affairs.

Hizbullah has welcomed Prime Minister Saad Hariri's decision to suspend his resignation pending talks describing his move as “positive.”

Hariri, who returned from a mysterious nearly three-week-long stay abroad, had caused widespread perplexity on November 4 when he resigned during a TV broadcast from Saudi Arabia, citing assassination threats as well as the negative impact on Lebanon and the region of Hizbullah and its Iranian patrons.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri received a cable message from US President Donald Trump on Thursday congratulating him on the occasion of Independence Day in which he expressed the United States' “appreciation for the bilateral relations between the two countries and peoples,” Hariri's media office said.

Head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Ali Jafari, said that disarming Hizbullah party was “non-negotiable,” Iranian state TV said Thursday.

Jafari was also quoted as saying that Iran's Revolutionary Guards will play an active role in a lasting "ceasefire" in Syria.

Progressive Socialist Party leader assured on Thursday that Lebanon will manage to find an “exceptional” solution for the lingering crisis that followed Prime Minister Saad Hariri's resignation “for the sake of political stability.”

“The least we can say is that the country is passing through exceptional conditions which requires exceptional solutions. I am confident that we will be able to reach them in the interest of political stability, without exception,” said Jumblat in a tweet on Thursday.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri's decision to reconsider his resignation is “conditional” and could be attributed to an “inclination to embarrass Hizbullah” and secure the “widest possible support among the Lebanese for his national demands,” Saudi daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on Thursday.

Hariri has set three conditions for rolling back his resignation after putting it on hold on Wednesday to pave way for more consultations that will be started by President Michel Aoun.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri held separate talks Wednesday evening with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan and announced that Arab states are “inclined” to support his conciliatory approach.

“We discussed the consultations that we intend to carry out, both him and I, about the issue of the dissociation policy, and its main principle is to spare Lebanon any difficulties,” said Hariri after talks with Berri in Ain el-Tineh, which were attended by Hariri's adviser Nader Hariri and Berri's aide Ali Hassan Khalil, who is also the finance minister.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday announced the appointment of Pernille Dahler Kardel of Denmark as Acting United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCOL).