Well-informed Lebanese officials said on Saturday that the Syrian side depicted the latest measures taken by Lebanon's government to control the influx of Syrian refugees as a “flagrant violation of the Lebanese-Syrian treaty that could aggravate relations between the two neighboring countries”.

The sources also did not rule out the possibility that the Syrian authorities could take similar measures as a retaliatory action by closing the transit border line between Lebanon and the Arab countries.

Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq stressed on Saturday that the cabinet would reach a decision on the waste management file by January 17, the deadline for closing the Naameh landfill and the date when the contract with the company, which collects dumps in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, expires.

Al-Mashnouq told Ad-Diyar daily published on Saturday that the decision would not be reached over the weekend but definitely at the start of next week.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has officially informed Saudi officials that Lebanon will receive the first batch of French weapons after March, As Safir daily reported Saturday.

The newspaper said that Le Drian gave the information to the Saudi officials during a recent visit to Riyadh.

Kuwait's First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah is scheduled to visit Beirut on Monday for talks with top officials, al-Mustaqbal newspaper reported.

The Kuwaiti FM is expected to discuss with the Lebanese officials issues of common interest linked to the latest developments in the Arab world and the region, the daily said on Saturday.

Intelligence suggests that Syrian President Bashar Assad is building a secret underground plant with the aim of developing nuclear weapons, Germany's Spiegel news magazine said Friday.

Citing information made available by unidentified intelligence sources, Spiegel said the plant was in an inaccessible mountain region in the west of the war-ravaged country, two kilometers from the Lebanese border.

The Kataeb Party noted Friday that any “leniency” regarding the garbage landfills and the privatization process would mean that “corruption will remain in ultimate charge of this file,” stressing that privatizing the landfills is the government's duty.

In a statement issued in the afternoon, Kataeb insisted that “the government must take charge of the waste management file, and the authority over privatizing the landfills must be its duty.”

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah announced Friday that his party's fighters are maintaining full preparedness on the eastern border to confront any takfiri assault, alongside the army and security forces, noting that the inter-Christian dialogue that got underway might lead to resolving the presidential crisis.

“I salute the officers and soldiers of the army and the Islamic resistance who are deployed on the border and are protecting the country against Israeli and takfiri terrorist attacks,” Nasrallah said in a televised address during a ceremony held by the Hizbullah-affiliated al-Imdad Islamic Charitable Association.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam said on Friday that the Lebanese have no option but to resort to dialogue, reiterating his call for the election of a new president.

“We the Lebanese have no option but a rational dialogue (based on) openness,” Salam said.

The Lebanese army said on Friday that is has arrested in the eastern Bekaa Valley a Syrian suspected of belonging to a terrorist organization.

The military said in a communique that Moussa Obeid al-Khodr was apprehended in the area of Qob Elias on Thursday.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi slammed on Friday some journalists and TV stations without naming them for reports and shows that “contradict moral values” and said Lebanon's presidential crisis is linked to Sunni-Shiite discord.

“Some writings and TV shows are violating sanctity and resorting to deception and lies for money-making purposes,” said al-Rahi.