Lebanese Forces MP Antoine Zahra said on Monday that the party will refrain from attending a parliament session if approving a new electoral law did not top the agenda.

“On behalf of the Lebanese Forces I say: There is no possibility for us to go to any legislative session that does not start with discussing and approving a new electoral law before moving to any other item,” said Zahra.

The Free Patriotic Movement seeks to have an understanding with al-Mustaqbal Movement away from any agreement on governmental quotas or military and security appointments, al-Akhbar daily reported on Monday.

“We have always sought to complete our internal understandings through an agreement with al-Mustaqbal. It is a strategic goal for us even if it annoys some. The country's interest lies in agreements between the strongest, particularly if they do not marginalize anyone,” FPM sources told the daily on condition of anonymity.

Al-Jamaa al-Islamiya in the North and Tripoli has two reservations about the nomination of founder of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun for the post of presidency, As Safir daily reported on Monday.

The Fateh al-Sham Front -- formerly al-Qaida's Syria affiliate al-Nusra Front – has taken the decision to eradicate the presence of the Islamic State group in the northeastern border town of Arsal and in the Qalamoun area, al-Akhbar daily reported on Monday.

The daily pointed out to the assassination of extremist IS official Abu Bakr al-Reqqawi a day earlier in Arsal, and said that his killing was part of the plan that has been put into implementation.

Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin assessed the latest meeting between al-Mustaqbal Movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri and Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Zaspikin as positive and friendly, and emphasized that the presidential file in Lebanon is an internal affair, As Safir daily reported on Monday.

Discussions between the two men focused on the file of the Lebanese presidency and the repercussions of the Syrian crisis on Lebanon, added the daily.

Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Lebanon, Ambassador Christina Lassen, called on Lebanon on Sunday to abolish the death penalty, on the occasion of the European and World Day against the Death Penalty that will be marked on Monday.

Arab Tawhid Party chief Wiam Wahhab announced Sunday that an apparently paramilitary group affiliated with his party will “soon” start operating in “all Lebanese regions.”

An altercation erupted Sunday in the Sidon suburb of Haret Saida between the Internal Security Forces and a number of young men over the closure of a key road leading to a Shiite mosque during a Ashoura ceremony, Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) reported.

An army sergeant was seriously wounded on Sunday when he came under gunfire in the northern city of Tripoli, state-run National News Agency reported.

Hizbullah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qassem has stressed that his party's ties with its two allies the AMAL Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement are “firm” and “strategic.”