A Syrian man was arrested Wednesday in the Akkar border town of al-Hisheh on charges of “manufacturing mortar guns for the terrorist groups in Arsal's outskirts,” state-run National News Agency reported.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has said that a ceasefire in Syria should not cover jihadist groups like the Islamic State group and the Fatah al-Sham Front, as well as groups like Lebanon's Hizbullah which fights on the regime side.

A senior Israeli military officer said Wednesday that the army believes Middle East's chaos has weakened the country's enemies, creating a low probability of war involving Israel in 2017.

Speaker Nabih Berri reiterated on Wednesday the necessity to speed up drafting a new electoral law based on proportional representation.

A member of the extremist group Asbat al-Ansar was shot dead in Sidon's Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh on Wednesday, sparking violence that resulted in the death of two other people and the wounding of four others, the National News Agency reported.

At the junction of the camp's vegetable market, unknown gunmen opened fired at Samer Hmeid, also known as Samer Nejmeh, and the Palestinian Abed Saleh, which resulted in the death of Hmeid on the spot and the wounding of Saleh.

Following the recent assassination of the Russian ambassador in Turkey, the attack resonated in the capital Beirut and triggered some reactions where a group of youth wrote overnight slogans on the cement blocs surrounding the Russian embassy in Beirut's Corniche al-Mazraa area and managed to disappear, al-Joumhouria daily reported Wednesday.

A group of youth managed to sneak late on Tuesday and write slogans on the cement blocs around the embassy “denouncing the battle in Aleppo” and “declaring solidarity with the Syrian people and victims,” a security source told the daily on condition of anonymity.

Lebanon's council of ministers held its first meeting at the Presidential Palace in Baabda on Wednesday, after its formation over the weekend, and formed a committee designed to draft a new ministerial statement, media reports said.

The cabinet which brought together the entire political spectrum except for the Kataeb party, that rejected the portfolio it was offered, had a commemorative photo taken in the presence of the three senior officials President Michel Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal Movement on Tuesday called for devising a “modern electoral law” in order to hold the 2017 parliamentary elections on time.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc stressed Tuesday that it cannot accept an electoral law fully based on the proportional representation system as long as Hizbullah holds onto its controversial arsenal of arms.

A Lebanese national was among those wounded in the deadly truck attack at a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday, Lebanon's embassy in Germany said Tuesday.