BEIRUT: The Progressive Socialist Party is keen to preserve good ties with Hezbollah in order to maintain stability in Lebanon, PSP official Ghazi Aridi said Thursday.

"It is important to preserve the relationship between the two parties [PSP and Hezbollah] so as to maintain the stability of the country," Aridi, who also is public works minister, told state-run Tele Liban channel.

Pointing to a dinner meeting with Hezbollah officials at his Beirut residence Wednesday evening, Aridi said: “We discussed in depth various issues concerning the region and Lebanon, including the government situation.”

"There is consensus between the two parties on a number of key and strategic issues, and therefore in every meeting issues – such as the confrontation with Israel, the resistance, Lebanon’s right to press for the implementation of Resolution 1701 and to urge the world to shoulder its responsibilities in this regard – are being discussed," he said.

The banquet was attended by Hezbollah officials Mohammed Fneish, Hussein Hajj Hassan, MP Hassan Fadlallah and Wafik Safa as well as Cabinet Minister Wael Abu Faour and MP Akram Shehayeb, both PSP.

Abu Faour told the Beirut daily As-Safir that the dinner gathering was a continuation of a previous meeting between the two parties “aimed at strengthening and developing bilateral ties.”

Sources close to Hezbollah told As-Safir that the meeting was “cordial, positive, frank and clear.”

While denying tensions in relations between the PSP and Hezbollah, Aridi acknowledged the PSP and Hezbollah differed on certain issues.

“We are not a single party. But we can manage the dispute through understanding [issues] from different points of view and work together to maintain stability,” he said.

PSP leader Walid Jumblatt admitted in an interview published Wednesday that there is a dispute with Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah over the crisis in Syria.