Hizbullah MP Mohammed Raad said his party was preparing for the post-Ayoub stage after it succeeded in flying the drone over Israel last month, the National News Agency reported Monday.

“The Islamic resistance is preparing for the post-Ayoub stage and let the Zionist enemy know that we won’t allow any wrongdoings,” said Raad during a ceremony on the occasion of the resistance’s Martyrs Day in the southern town of Tfahta.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry called on Monday on its nationals currently present in Lebanon to avoid the areas of clashes.

“Egyptian nationals should avoid the areas of tension as much as possible and contact the country's missions if they need any clarifications on the security situation,” assistant minister for consular affairs Ali al-Ashiri said.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour headed on Monday to Cairo to preside over two meetings for the Arab League Ministerial Council, which Lebanon took over its chairmanship on September 5.

Al-Joumhouria newspaper reported that Mansour will chair the Arab League Foreign Affairs meeting and a meeting between European-Arab Foreign Ministers, which will tackle the joint cooperation.

Phalange party leader Amin Gemayel said Monday that he supports dialogue with his foes in the March 8 coalition majority and rejects divorce.”

In an interview with the Kuwaiti AnNahar newspaper, Gemayel said: “We are with dialogue and against divorce.”

Cautious calm prevailed in the southern port city of Sidon on Monday amid heavy deployment by the army after a gunbattle erupted between Hizbullah supporters and Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir in the Taamir Ain al-Hilweh neighborhood.

Schools and shops closed as the city mourned the killing of three people during the armed clashes, which also wounded seven others.

Central Bank Governor Riyad Salameh has warned the government that inflation could reach 6 percent this year and expected a balance of payments deficit of 2 billion dollars by the end of September, An Nahar newspaper reported on Monday.

His warnings came after he was summoned to brief a cabinet session last Wednesday on the economic repercussions of proposed taxes to finance a new salary scale for the public sector.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel on Sunday warned that the army will open fire on any gunman who appears on the streets in the southern city of Sidon, in the wake of a deadly clash between supporters of Hizbullah and Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir that left three people dead and several others wounded.

“Army troops have received clear orders from their command to open fire on any gunman,” Charbel said as he arrived in Sidon to attend an emergency meeting for the South's security council.

The March 14-backed list on Sunday won the by-election of the Tripoli Bar Association which was held to fill two vacant posts, one of them the head of the association, state-run National News Agency reported.

March 14 candidate Michel Khoury was elected as the new president of the bar association, while his comrade Saadi Qalawoun was elected as a member, NNA said.

Three people were killed and at least four others were wounded on Sunday in an armed clash between supporters of Hizbullah and Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir in the Taamir Ain al-Hilweh neighborhood in the southern city of Sidon, state-run National News Agency reported.

Among the dead was one of Asir's bodyguards whom NNA identified by his nickname Lobnan al-Ezz.

A boy was killed on Sunday by a lightening strike in the northern region of Akkar, reported the National News Agency.

It said that Omar Ali al-Sheikh, 12, was struck by lightening and killed in the region of Ain Tanta in Dreib, Akkar.