Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat emphasized that the rights of the Christian community are not marginalized as some officials claim but that the latter are “marginalizing themselves” because of their “stubbornness and adamant conditions”, As Safir daily reported on Wednesday.

“Allow me please...I object to this whole equation. What is true is that self marginalization is brought about by some Christian component because of its stubbornness and insistence on certain conditions,” said Jumblat to the daily.

Hizbullah has initiated efforts to mend the rift that emerged recently between its two allies, the Free Patriotic Movement and the Marada Movement, and has therefore dispatched Wafik Safa, the person responsible for the Liaison Committee and coordination in the party, to Rabieh for talks with the FPM leader Jebran Bassil, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Wednesday.

The party began endeavors to contain the “aggravating” FPM-Marada tension, as well as to renovate the internal party's ranks and address its alliances mainly that the tension between the allies is threatening these coalitions with further rifts, added the daily.

The Islamic State group has announced the death in Syria of an Australian jihadist of Lebanese origin convicted over a 2005 plot to bomb the Melbourne Cricket Ground, in a new English-language magazine.

We are going through “a political system crisis and a nation's crisis” and we will “use all political and popular means to rectify this abnormal situation,” Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil said on Tuesday.

Hizbullah's top lawmaker has stressed the importance of “balance and partnership” in running the country's affairs, a day after Hizbullah's ally the Free Patriotic Movement announced boycotting national dialogue over perceived marginalization of the representatives of Christians in state institutions.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam held separate talks Tuesday with three ministers of his cabinet as well as the army chief, state-run National News Agency reported, a day after the Free Patriotic Movement announced that it will boycott national dialogue for reasons involving a long-running dispute over military appointments and the cabinet's decision-taking mechanism in the absence of a president.

The army shelled the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal on Tuesday after a militant was killed in clashes between rival terrorist groups in the region, state-run National News Agency reported.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil's rhetoric during Monday's national dialogue session contained a “bigoted sectarian tone that sets back Christians tens of years,” senior Marada Movement officials have warned.

Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun is expected to meet with Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah soon, a media report said on Tuesday.

Hizbullah has not taken a final stance on the issue of attending the cabinet's next session although sources close to the March 8 camp have said that the party will not “abandon” its ally the Free Patriotic Movement, which has openly declared a boycott of cabinet and national dialogue sessions, a media report said on Tuesday.