Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Thursday described the ceasefire agreement reached with Israel as “a sort of an executive mechanism for the implementation of Resolution 1701.”

“Our priority is to reach long-term stability and the election of a president,” Mikati added.

The co-chair of the ceasefire monitoring mechanism, U.S. Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, held talks Thursday with Speaker Nabih Berri.

Jeffers was accompanied by a U.S. military delegation and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson.

Speaker Nabih Berri, who had called for parliament to convene to elect a president next month, is optimistic that a president will be elected on January 9, a prominent parliamentary source told Kuwaiti newspaper al-Anbaa.

The source said, in remarks published Thursday, the vote would likely be held in open sessions. "If that wasn't Berri's intention, he wouldn't have invited ambassadors to the session."

Israeli artillery shells targeted Lebanese Civil Defense crews as they were removing rubble and searching for bodies in Naqoura on Thursday.

The head of the Lebanese Forces’ dept. in Karm al-Zeitoun, Roland Murr, was killed overnight in an armed clash with the Soldiers of God group in Ashrafieh, media reports said.

The army deployed in the area afterwards and started pursuing those involved in the clash.

There is “a chance that this time” Israel will “really be able to reach a hostage deal” with Hamas, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Wednesday that Israel is “still in the middle of a war” and that Iran is its “main enemy.”

Hezbollah MP Hussein al-Hajj Hassan told al-Jadeed TV on Wednesday that “all of Hezbollah’s institutions are licensed and under the law, especially al-Qard al-Hassan.”

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s Senior Adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern Affairs, Massad Boulos, has described the Lebanon-Israel ceasefire as “a historic agreement for both countries, the importance of which will be measured in the weeks and months to come.”

“It is very comprehensive and covers all the necessary points,” Boulos added, in an interview with French magazine Le Point.

French President Emmanuel Macron has called on both Israel and Hezbollah to respect the ceasefire in Lebanon.