Prime Minister Nawaf Salam called Defense Minister Michel Menassa on Saturday, after three rockets were fired at Israel from south Lebanon, stressing “the need to take all the necessary security and military measures to assert that the state alone takes the decisions of war and peace.”

Hezbollah political bureau member Mahmoud Qmati has warned that “Washington wants Lebanon to be a U.S. colony” and that “U.S. pressures might lead the country to chaos and civil war.”

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil whose party is now in opposition after being excluded from the Nawaf Salam government, said Friday that the FPM is "in the state and will never again be outside the state."

"No one can take us out," Bassil said. "We might be excluded from the upcoming appointments but we have our large parliamentary bloc and our people in the administration, the military and security services, the judiciary, and various state departments."

Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji, who was named by the Lebanese Forces, has again blamed Hezbollah for more than a year of clashes with Israel, which he said caused destruction, human loss, and Israeli occupation.

"We must remember who brought about the Israeli ground invasion of south Lebanon and who caused the destruction and the human losses," Rajji said in an interview with France24.

President Joseph Aoun has stressed the importance of unity in confronting any threat and for achieving the country’s prosperity.

Cabinet on Thursday approved a mechanism for administrative appointments, as Prime Minister Nawaf Salam announced that Lebanon’s new authorities are seeking “an upright and effective state administration that protects the citizen.”

Hezbollah MP Ibrahim al-Moussawi on Thursday blasted Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji, who is close to the Lebanese Forces, for “his insistence to accuse Hezbollah of disavowing the ceasefire agreement with the Israeli enemy.”

MP Hussein al-Hajj Hassan of the Loyalty to Resistance bloc has noted that Hezbollah “considers that the responsibility for addressing and confronting what happened on the Lebanese-Syrian border falls on the Lebanese state and all its pillars and institutions.”

“Hezbollah, as part of it (the state), communicated with officials to push them to perform their role,” Hajj Hassan added during a funeral in the region.

U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff has denied a media report about alleged discussions with “an unnamed Lebanese official in Doha” as “baseless, false and misleading.”

President Joseph Aoun told Wednesday German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock that Israel has refused to leave the five "strategic" hills where Israeli troops are still deployed beyond a Feb. 18 deadline for full withdrawal.

"Israel has refused all the Lebanese proposals to leave the five hills in south Lebanon and is still detaining a number of Lebanese prisoners," Aoun told Baerbock, adding that Israel is obstructing the implementation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 and violating a ceasefire reached in late November by occupying Lebanese land.