Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi kicked off a trip to Saudi Arabia on Monday where he is scheduled to hold talks with King Salman bin Abdul Aziz, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri who has been in Riyadh since his shock resignation on Nov. 4.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson reiterated in talks with his Lebanese counterpart Jebran Bassil, the UK's support for Lebanon and that the country should not be used as a tool for proxy conflicts, a press release said on Monday.

Qatar’s Foreign Minister Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said on Monday that “Lebanon’s stability should be restored as soon as possible” as he urged everyone to avoid “intervening in the country’s internal affairs.”

President Michel Aoun on Monday said that Prime Minister Saad Hariri's remarks on the possibility of reconsidering his own resignation was a “positive” indicator.

Visitors to the President at the Presidential Palace quoted Aoun as saying: “Hariri's hints that he might reconsider his resignation is something positive.”

Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Sunday he will return to Lebanon "within days" and that his surprising resignation was aimed at creating a “positive shock.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said on Saturday that “if the March 8 alliance truly” wants PM Saad Hariri's return they would “withdraw from the crises in the region.”

The Lebanese army carried out raids in Baalbek in the Bekaa valley that included an exchange of gunfire in search for a Saudi national kidnapped a day earlier, media reports said on Saturday.

Army members staged raids in the town of Dar al-Wasaa that escalated into an exchange of fire with the suspects leaving three injured, reports said.

President Michel Aoun could file a complaint to the UN Security Council if Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who resigned last week from Riyadh, did not return to Beirut and the circumstances surrounding his stay in Saudi Arabia are not clarified, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

Some contacts with the aim of triggering confusion and inciting the Sunni community and the Palestinian factions in Lebanon were monitored, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

Justice Minister Salim Jreissati has asked the country's prosecutor general to launch an investigation against two Saudi journalists who appeared on a TV talk show and branded the Lebanese president and parliament speakers as "terrorists," the National News Agency reported.