The Turkish pilots kidnapped in Lebanon on Friday were abducted in a hope to exchange them with the nine Lebanese pilgrims held in Syria's Aazaz region, reported As Safir newspaper on Tuesday.

A widely-informed security source told the daily that Mohammed Saleh, a relative of the pilgrims who was arrested Sunday in connection to the pilots' case, revealed the names of individuals linked to the abduction

Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is scheduled to make two televised appearances this week to commemorate the end of July 2006 war with Israel , al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The first appearance for Nasrallah will be in an interview on Wednesday with the pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV network.

President Michel Suleiman on Monday called for supporting the army so that it can become the only force that possesses arms in Lebanon, stressing that the state must oversee the so-called army-people-resistance equation.

“Commitment to the Baabda Declaration is what can protect Lebanon's unity and stability, as well as to the defense strategy that we proposed in the wake of the Baabda Decalaration,” Suleiman said in a speech on the occasion of moving to the summer presidential headquarters in Beiteddine.

An attempt to smuggle a large quantity of Captagon pills was thwarted on Monday by authorities at the Beirut Port, state-run National News Agency reported.

“This afternoon, the Judicial Police's Central Anti-Drug Bureau foiled a bid to smuggle a large quantity of the Captagon narcotic pills, estimated to be in the millions, which were packed in a professional manner inside huge air-conditioning machines,” NNA said.

Outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly on Monday warned that Hizbullah's military intervention in Syria is undermining the Lebanese state, calling for the formation of a “respectable, competent government.”

During a farewell luncheon thrown in her honor by the American Chamber of Commerce, Connelly said she leaves “worried that the current political impasse has compromised the institutions of the state, primarily to serve the interests of Hizbullah and its Iranian sponsor.”

The Phalange Party on Monday urged authorities to “liberate the airport from the grip of illegal arms” and to “strike the environment of security chaos,” in the wake of the abduction of two Turkish pilots near Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport.

“The Phalange Party deplores the kidnap of the Turkish citizens on the road of Beirut's international airport … and sees in the incident a severe blow to the state's image,” said a statement issued after the weekly meeting of the party's political bureau.

The families of the Aazaz hostages on Monday threatened to kidnap “any Turkish national on Beirut's streets,” after the Internal Security Forces' Intelligence Bureau failed to release Mohammed Saleh, a relative of one of the abductees who has been arrested over alleged ties to the kidnappers of two Turkish pilots.

The warning comes after the families held a meeting with caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel at his office over the arrest of Saleh and the ongoing negotiations in the case of the abducted pilgrims.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani called for the release of all abductees inside Lebanon including the Turkish pilots, warning of the negative impacts on the country.

“All abductees, including the Turkish pilot and co-pilot, the Lebanese kidnapped in Syria's Aazaz and those kidnapped tit-for-tat should be released,” Qabbani said in a statement issued on Monday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat condemned on Monday the abduction of two Turkish pilots in Lebanon on Friday, contrasting the successful release of Iranians held in Syria in the past to the current deadlock over the release of the abducted Lebanese pilgrims.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “The failure to release the Lebanese captives demonstrates some regional countries' lack of interest in their allies in favor for their own.”

Arrest warrants were issued on Monday against an armed group that sought to carry out terrorist attacks in Lebanon, reported the National News Agency.

It said that Military Examining Magistrate Fadi Sawan issued six arrest warrants, including five in absentia, against members of the group after he interrogated one of them.