Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea held talks Monday evening at the Center House with Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri.

“We fully support the presidential tenure, away from any other sensitivities. I declare from here that we will stop political debates regarding the government formation process and this is aimed at helping the premier-designate,” Geagea said after the meeting.

Speaker Nabih Berri was “dismayed” by the delay in the government formation process after he agreed to a cabinet line-up format that Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri proposed prior to his Friday meeting with President Michel Aoun, a media report said.

That line-up “included three ministers for President Aoun including a Christian loyal to Minister (Talal) Arslan and a Sunni from outside al-Mustaqbal Movement, while granting the three Druze seats to (Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid) Jumblat,” al-Jadeed TV said.

The Kataeb Party announced Monday that it is communicating with all political parties, including the Free Patriotic Movement, regardless of whether or not it will join the new government.

“Some media outlets and websites are circulating a lot of talk and analyses about negotiations and initiatives between the FPM and Kataeb over the issue of participating in the government, especially after the latest meeting between Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel and MP Elias Bou Saab in Saifi,” Kataeb said in a statement.

President Michel Aoun has called on the residents of Baalbek-Hermel to cooperate with the army in order to rein in the security chaos in their region.

Aoun also reassured the MPs of Baalbek-Hermel whom he met Monday at the Baabda Palace that “the security measures that will be taken in the region to strengthen security and security in it will be accompanied by integrated developmental work that fits the region's economic and social needs.”

The Lebanese Army has removed the electronic gates it had installed at the entrances of the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, replacing them with other security measures.

In a statement issued Monday, the Army Command said the move comes out of its “sympathy with the suffering of the Palestinian people in Lebanon, especially those who live in the Ain el-Hilweh and Mieh Mieh camps, and in line with the plan that has been devised by this Command to preserve security inside camps.”

Army Commander General Joseph Aoun began an official visit on Monday to the United States where he is scheduled to hold talks with military and civilian officials, the National News Agency reported.

The Saudi-led coalition battling rebels in Yemen on Monday said its forces killed eight members of Lebanon's Hizbullah in an air strike in northern Yemen, near the Saudi border.

"The coalition killed 41 terrorist elements in Maran and destroyed their vehicles and equipment. Among the dead were eight members of Lebanese Hizbullah, including a commander," coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki said in a statement, without offering details on how the fighters were killed. 

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea lashed out at Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil saying his concept of partnership is that “he works single-handed” while everyone else follows, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat daily reported on Monday.

MP Wehbe Katicha of the Strong Republic parliamentary bloc denied accusations that the Lebanese Forces is hampering the formation of the Cabinet, as he reversed the blame on parties he said were “monopolizing" power in the country, Saudi Asharq al-Awsat reported on Monday.

MP Eddy Abillama of the Lebanese Forces has accused Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil of violating the LF-FPM Maarab Agreement.

“Prime Minister-designate (Saad) Hariri is the only one entitled to distribute ministerial portfolios in coordination with the president and not that person who has given himself the right to distribute seats as he sees fit,” Abillama said in a TV interview, referring to Bassil.