Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stated that the meeting he held on Friday with President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati was an opportunity to assess the local and Arab situations, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Sunday.

He told the daily: “Talks focused on finding ways to end the political crisis in Lebanon given the halt of the national dialogue.”

The mother of a Lebanese men held hostage by the Syrian regime urged political leaders on Saturday to exert efforts to release her son Hassan Srour and bring him back to Lebanon.

“I particularly ask General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim to work on this case, as he has helped in retrieving the body of my other son from Syria before,” Amina Turki al-Abboud Srour told the National News Agency.

The customs at the Rafic Hariri International Airport halted on Saturday an attempt to smuggle communication devices connected to satellite technology into Lebanon, the National News Agency reported.

“Three communication devices were discovered at the airport security check in the suitcase of a Syrian national,” the NNA explained, adding that Khalil S. was coming from Turkey via the Turkish Airlines.

The deputy of Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani said Saturday that the Higher Islamic Council is the only body that has the authority to call for the election of its members.

Following talks with Prime Minister Najib Miqati at the head of a Council delegation, Omar Mesqawi said: “We want effective elections that are capable of giving the Council the ability to control the performance of Dar al-Fatwa, including the Mufti.”

The General Security general directorate denied on Saturday claims by Lebanese-French director Christophe Karabache that his movie “Too Much Love Will Kill You” was banned from showing at movie theaters in Lebanon.

“The alleged claims are not true as no company has so far asked for a license to show the movie,” a communique issued by the General Security Department said.

Energy Minister Jebran Bassil denied on Saturday that the Free Patriotic Movement has called for the closure of the border with Syria, saying the government should put an admission ceiling for refugees crossing to Lebanon.

During a press conference he held at his residence in his hometown of Batroun, Bassil said he urged the cabinet on Thursday to control the influx of refugees and limit the burden on the Lebanese state. “We never said we wanted to expel them.”

President Michel Suleiman hailed on Saturday the completion of the reconciliation process in the Mountains, in particular, in the mixed town of Brih in the Shouf.

Suleiman considered that the reconciliation fortifies the national unity and coexistence among the Lebanese as it will strengthen the ties between the residents of the Mountains and the rest of the people.

A Kuwaiti man was briefly kidnapped in the North Metn area by three gunmen disguised as police officers, the state-run National News Agency reported on Saturday.

NNA said Moeen Rashad Khorshid was driving his BMW X6 on the road of factories in the town of Mansourieh when three men wearing police jackets intercepted him.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea said Saturday that the March 14 alliance will call for a parliamentary session to vote on an electoral law if a subcommittee failed to reach an agreement by the end of January.

In an interview with French-language newspaper L'Orient Le Jour, Geagea said: “The aim of March 14 it to agree on a final and consensual version of an electoral law by the end of January.”

European Union Ambassador to Lebanon Angelina Eichhorst expressed on Saturday her “understanding” of Lebanon's rejection to set up camps for refugees escaping the violence in Syria.

Eichhorst told An Nahar daily that she “understood the stance of the government to reject the establishment of camps” but stressed “the importance of preparing for the possible influx of more refugees.”