Relations between Beirut and Damascus remain tense — as they have been for decades past, a time during which Syria failed to treat its smaller neighbor as a sovereign nation

Hizbullah’s grip on the state has never looked weaker. Many of its leaders are dead. Its armoury is depleted. It has lost control of Beirut airport. Its land corridor to Iran via Syria and Iraq has been cut off. And its supporters are angry at its failure to rebuild what Israel destroyed last year.

Lebanese leaders firmly rejected any efforts at foreign interference during a visit by Iran's security chief Wednesday, with the prime minister saying Beirut would "tolerate neither tutelage nor diktat" after Tehran voiced opposition to plans to disarm Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s president has told a top Iranian security official that Beirut rejects foreign intervention and wants stability for its people. Ali Larijani, Iran’s Supreme National Security

The visit by Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s top security body, came as the Lebanese government moves to disarm Hezbollah, the militant group that has long been Tehran’s most powerful regional ally.

Five years after the Beirut port explosion, families of victims are still seeking justice. The blast, caused by detonated ammonium nitrate, killed at least 218 people and devastated the city.

No group in Lebanon is permitted to bear arms or rely on foreign backing, its president told a visiting senior Iranian official on Wednesday after the cabinet approved the goals of a U.S.-backed roadmap to disarm the Iran-aligned Hezbollah group.

No group in Lebanon is permitted to bear arms or rely on foreign backing, President Joseph Aoun told a senior Iranian official on Wednesday, days after the cabinet

Israeli drones on Thursday dropped warning leaflets over the southern Lebanese town of Shebaa, cautioning residents to stay away from designated areas near the border, local media said. The leaflets highlighted an area in red and urged locals not to approach it, Lebanon’s state news agency NNA reported.