Lebanese Forces official Melhem Riachi informed Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Thursday that Saudi Arabia encourages the rapprochement between the two parties.

Riachi, who is LF chief Samir Geagea's envoy, delivered a message to Aoun during a visit he made to Rabieh that Riyadh “backs and encourages Christian rapprochement,” local media reported.

A Palestinian member of the extremist group Asbat al-Ansar was injured on Thursday in a shooting in the southern refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said Mohammed Barakat shot Khaled Alaeddine known as Khaled al-Khomeini in the camp's al-Taware neighborhood in the back.

The number of al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front and Islamic State group militants has dropped after the terrorists were besieged by the Lebanese army in the eastern Bekaa Valley and by Syrian troops and Hizbullah fighters on the other side of the border, pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on Thursday.

Al-Nusra gunmen are located in the area of al-Kassarat in Wadi Hmeid on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal, which is a zone blockaded by the Lebanese army from the west and the Syrian military and Hizbullah in the east.

The Free Patriotic Movement has snapped back at Prime Minister Tammam Salam over his criticism that the party is paralyzing the cabinet, warning him not to hold it accountable.

“Our role in today's cabinet session lies in questioning and holding accountable and not being held accountable over paralysis,” Education Minister Elias Bou Saab told al-Joumhouria daily published Thursday.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has expressed “disgust” and “concern” over the failure to bridge the gap between the bickering sides in the government.

Local dailies quoted officials who have visited Salam as saying that the premier is “disgusted” from the situation after extensive consultations between the different parties failed to bring viewpoints closer.

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji stressed Wednesday that certain attempts to “distort” the military institution's role “will never succeed.”

“The military institution is committed to its national role in preserving Lebanon's unity and the coexistence among its sons,” said Qahwaji as he inspected military units deployed in the southern region of al-Zahrani.

Preliminary investigations into the kidnapping of five Czech citizens in Lebanon last week suggest the case is criminal, Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said on Wednesday.

"We've arrived at the beginning of the end of the thread (of investigations), and it relates to mafias, drug trafficking and weapons," the official National News Agency quoted him as saying.

The Internal Security Forces on Wednesday announced seizing 17 tons of substances used in the manufacturing of narcotics.

“After months of monitoring the activities of top drug dealers, manufacturers and traffickers, the central anti-narcotics bureau and the south department managed Tuesday to intercept a truck at the Kfar Rumman roundabout in the city of Nabatiyeh,” the ISF said in a statement.

The army arrested Wednesday two Syrians and a Palestinian on charges of abducting and killing a Syrian child.

“The Intelligence Directorate arrested at noon the Syrians Qusay Moussa Ouweir and Youssef Faisal al-Hamad and the Palestinian Youssef Taha al-Zaydeh,” the Army Command said in a statement.

Kataeb party leader MP Sami Gemayel stressed on Wednesday that the time has come for popular accountability against the dump collecting company Sukleen “which has been taking Lebanon hostage for over 20 years.”

“The contract of Sukleen was extended several times since the last tender in the 1990s until today. It is time for popular accountability for a company that has been taking Lebanon hostage for over 20 years,” said Gemayel in a press conference on the waste management crisis.