With the deadline looming for the terms of a fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah to be met, an American diplomat on Monday said “much progress” had been made recently.

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein the Israeli Army has started to withdraw from the western sector of south Lebanon and will continue to do so until completely out of Lebanon in what he described as "a successful process.

In a news conference in Lebanon following meetings with top Lebanese officials, Hochstein said these withdrawals would continue until the Israeli army was completely out of the country.

Lebanon’s parliament has elected army chief Joseph Aoun as President – finally giving the country a head of state after more than two years. Aoun, who had support from both the US and Saudi Arabia, received 99 of 128 votes after two rounds in a special parliamentary session.

Lebanon’s parliament voted Thursday to elect the country’s army commander, Joseph Aoun, as head of state, filling a more than two-year-long presidential vacuum.