Interior Miniser Nouhad al-Mashnouq stated on Tuesday that Lebanon has taken a “clear position” on all forms of extremist terrorism.

He added in statement: “We understand Saudi Arabia's recent designation of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah in the kingdom, and al-Nusra Front as terrorist.”

The Change and Reform parliamentary bloc on Tuesday warned that a power vacuum in the country would be “fatal” to its political system, urging a speedy adoption of the new cabinet's policy statement.

“Is it true that we're unable to draft an acceptable policy statement for a cabinet that will last two or three months? The cabinet's mission is preserving security and preparing for the presidential vote, so how can it preserve them through vacuum?” MP Ibrahim Kanaan said during a press conference he held after the bloc's weekly meeting in Rabiyeh.

Three people were injured on Tuesday when rockets fired from Syria landed in various Bekaa towns.

At least 4 rockets fired from Syria hit the al-Qantara area in al-Nabi Sheet's outskirts, said MTV.

Customs agents at the Rafik Hariri International Airport on Tuesday foiled an attempt to smuggle a quantity of drugs into the country.

“A 25-year-old Brazilian man identified as K. B. tried to smuggle 6.1 kilograms of cocaine that were hidden among his clothes in two suitcases,” state-run National News Agency said.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly said on Tuesday that he agreed with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on the importance of holding the presidential polls on time as the means to preserve the country's stability.

“The patriarch and I agreed that stability in Lebanon would be best served by conducting the presidential elections on time on the basis of Lebanon’s constitutional procedures and democratic practice,” said Plumbly following talks with al-Rahi in Bkirki.

The Syrian government freed only 25 prisoners — and not the 150 reported by foreign mediators — in exchange for 13 Greek Orthodox nuns who had been held by al-Qaida-linked rebels, the country's information minister said Tuesday.

Qatari and Lebanese officials, who were mediating between Damascus and the rebels holding the nuns, said previously that 150 women prisoners were released early Monday.

Speaker Nabih Berri has refused to reveal the details of a proposal made with Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat to resolve the resistance deadlock in the policy statement but stressed that the clause included Israeli attacks on Lebanon's natural resources.

Berri and Jumblat, a centrist and the head of the National Struggle Front parliamentary bloc, have made a joint proposal that will be discussed on Tuesday during the tenth meeting of a seven-member committee tasked with drafting the policy statement of Prime Minister Tammam Salam's cabinet.

The major powers are locked in a race for influence in Lebanon's presidential elections as Michel Suleiman's six-year term nears its end, As Safir newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The daily said that the United States is backing elections to choose a new president and has sent an envoy who has a specific mission to follow up the polls.

March 14 officials and ministers representing the coalition in Prime Minister Tammam Salam's government discussed on Monday night the deadlock on the policy statement as the rival parties continued to hold onto their conditions, An Nahar daily reported.

The newspaper said Tuesday that the meeting mainly tackled the impasse on the blueprint as a seven-member ministerial committee tasked with drafting the statement is scheduled to hold its tenth session.

The Syrian opposition said Monday that 141 women prisoners were freed from regime jails as part of a swap deal involving the release of 13 nuns abducted from the Syrian Christian town of Maalula.

“We have information that 141 women were released,” opposition activist Hadi al-Abdallah, who filmed a video showing the exchange of prisoners, told Agence France Presse.