The national dialogue sessions between heads of the parliamentary blocs kicked off on Tuesday at Speaker Nabih Berri's residence in Ain el-Tineh to address a number of thorny issues that include the election of a president, the formation of a new government and a new voting system.

Berri inaugurated the session by “reiterating the need to agree on a package deal that begins with the election of a president.”

A man who was briefly abducted has been freed early on Tuesday in the outskirts of the eastern town of Barqa in the Bekaa valley, the National News Agency reported.

Late on Monday, four armed men in a Mercedes abducted Ibrahim Qozhaya Rabah on a road between the towns of Safra and Deir al-Ahmar, NNA said.

Security sources said on Tuesday that contacts between the Lebanese state and the abductors of the servicemen to negotiate their release have been cut for a long time, al-Akhbar daily reported.

The contacts between the government and the leadership of the Islamic State group have been cut off for a long time after the IS refused to hand the party, mediating a release, any clue of the destiny of the abducted soldiers, said the daily.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri held separate consultations Monday with the members of the Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc and Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat, on the eve of three days of consecutive national dialogue sessions.

The army on Monday retaliated to shelling from the Islamic State group on the border with Syria after destroying a post for al-Nusra Front in the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal, state-run National News Agency reported.

Two operations two smuggle more than 800,000 Captagon narcotic pills to Gulf countries have been smuggled in Lebanon in recent days, the Internal Security Forces said on Monday.

The Kataeb Party announced Monday that the consecutive national dialogue sessions that will kick off Tuesday must seek to protect Lebanon from “political, economic and security collapse.”

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil warned Monday that more FPM members might be suspended if they violate the movement's bylaws, three days after the expulsion of four prominent FPM officials.

The Lebanese army carried out raids in Dar al-Wasaa neighborhood in the Bekaa region where one person was reportedly wounded, the National News Agency said on Monday.

One man was wounded in raids that the army carried out early Monday on the houses of fugitives from the Jafaar family in Dar al-Wasaa.

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji marked Lebanon's Army Day Monday and reassured that efforts to free the soldiers abducted by the Islamic State group will continue, as he renewed oath to defend Lebanon and protect its borders and wealth, the National News Agency reported.

“On your behalf, I renew our oath to defend Lebanon and protect its borders and wealth. I hereby vow before the families of your hero fellows who were taken hostage by terrorist groups that we shall pursue our endeavors with persistence to uncover their destiny and liberate them to ensure their safe return back to their loved ones and to the institution they belong to,” said Qahwaji in his Order of the Day.