Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas has said he was optimistic that Lebanon would receive a good share of pledges made by international donors at a conference that was held in Kuwait last week.

“We are optimistic. Lebanon's share is good,” Derbas told al-Liwaa newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday.

Labor Minister Sejaan Qazzi stressed on Tuesday the importance of separating the appointment of military personnel from other political matters to avoid a rift in the army.

“The military institution doesn't need an additional battle... it's enough what it's confronting locally and along the border,” Qazzi said in comments published in the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah newspaper.

Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun was absent from the Easter mass that was led by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday amid reports on a rift between the two over the ongoing presidential vacuum.

The mass, which was held in Bkirki, was attended by former Presidents Michel Suleiman and Amin Gemayel, who is the head of the Kataeb party.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Monday that “Hizbullah's actions” in Syria are “bad for the people of Syria and Lebanon,” as he noted that “those blocking” the presidential vote “should be held to public account.”

“The Prime Minister and I reviewed developments in the region, including the agreement between the P5+1 and Iran on the elements of a comprehensive plan to deal with Iran’s nuclear program that were decided last week in Lausanne, as well as the conflicts in Syria and Yemen and the future of Middle East peace,” said Blinken after meeting PM Tammam Salam in Msaitbeh.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah noted Monday that Saudi Arabia will suffer a “major defeat” in the Yemeni conflict, as he stressed that “the war on Syria” has failed.

“Saudi Arabia will suffer a major defeat that will have an impact on its domestic situation and the entire region,” said Nasrallah in an interview on Syria's state-run al-Ikhbariya news channel.

Six more Lebanese truck drivers are on their way to Lebanon, days after they were stranded on the Syrian-Jordanian border after rebels seized the Syrian side, their syndicate said on Monday.

Another eight had arrived in Lebanon on Sunday.

Security forces succeeded in thwarting an attempt to smuggle 3.5 tons of cannabis from Lebanon to Libya, the anti-drug bureau announced in a statement on Monday.

The drugs were transported from Lebanon to a ship, called Mare Ta Queen, which was docked outside of Lebanon's regional waters.

A number of youths were saved by Civil Defense teams after they were stranded in Nahr Ibrahim, reported the National News Agency on Monday.

It said that the group of 16 were stranded in the river after their rubber raft malfunctioned.

The southern Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh has long provided a stable, if destitute, bolthole for Palestinian refugees, some of whom have lived within its walls since fleeing their homes more than six decades ago.

But the war in neighboring Syria has transformed parts of the southern camp into a safe haven for jihadists traveling to fight there, creating districts where even Palestinian security forces fear to tread and raising tensions among residents.

An Internal Security Forces unit raided overnight the house of a Syrian national on suspicion of having links to the murder of a Lebanese man.

The state-run National News Agency reported that 20-year-old Syrian Nawwaf Abdul Aziz Mansour, who is suspected of having links to the murder of a 50-year-old Lebanese, was detained.