Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil stressed Monday that the Arab countries have started to understand Lebanon's “neutral stance” towards the events in the region, days after al-Mustaqbal movement accused the ministry of breaching “Arab consensus.”

“We are sensing understanding of Lebanon's neutral stance but sometimes this issue infuriates certain parties because each party wants to take us in a certain direction,” Bassil told reporters in Abu Dhabi on the sidelines of an Arab League consultative meeting.

Kataeb Party leader MP Sami Gemayel reiterated Monday that his party cannot elect a presidential candidate whose political agenda is not clear.

“No one can compel us to endorse any candidate whose objectives are not known to us. We cannot endorse a candidate if we don't know the destination that he will take us to … That's why we have asked for clarifications,” said Gemayel after meeting National Liberal Party chief MP Dori Chamoun in Sodeco.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Monday called Arab Tawhid Party chief ex-minister Wiam Wahhab, state-run National News Agency reported.

Talks tackled the “general situations,” the agency said.

Several militants were injured after the Lebanese army clashed with fighters trying to infiltrate Lebanon through the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal, the state-run National News Agency reported on Monday.

NNA said the army thwarted the attempt of the gunmen to enter Masyada and Wadi al-Hosn which lie on Arsal's outskirts after intense fighting that lasted till dawn.

The Free Patriotic Movement is said to take escalatory measures and resign from the cabinet if it finds out that activating the government's work is only meant to postpone the presidential election, An Nahar daily said on Monday.

“We have fears that the issue of military appointments might be intentionally obstructed as a reaction to the candidacy of Aoun,” FPM sources told the daily.

French Ambassador Emmanuel Bonne was in Paris on Monday to brief top officials on the result of his talks with the rival Lebanese factions on the presidential deadlock.

Pan-Arab daily al-Hayat quoted an informed source as saying that Bonne will submit a report to the French Foreign Ministry, which will inform the Elysee Palace on the result of separate meetings he has held with Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea and Marada Movement leader lawmaker Suleiman Franjieh.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea's support for the candidacy of Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun has sparked a war of words between Geagea and Speaker Nabih Berri.

Berri was asked by his visitors about a recent comment made by Geagea that the ball is now in the court of Hizbullah, which should force its allies to vote for Aoun as president if it were true in its intentions to support him.

A snowstorm that has been lashing Lebanon since Friday night forced the closure of two ports in the southern city of Tyre on Sunday and prompted the education minister to order the closure of all public and private schools and technical institutes.

The health minister has also ordered a closure of daycares across the country.

A senior Hizbullah official stressed Sunday that Saudi Arabia will never be able to bring Lebanon under what he described as its “tutelage.”

“Lebanon will never be under Saudi tutelage and anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional,” said Sheikh Nabil Qaouq, the deputy head of Hizbullah's Executive Council.

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi lashed out Sunday at both Change and Reform bloc chief MP Michel Aoun and Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh without naming them, stressing that the March 14 camp must not accept the election of a president who would be “subservient to the Syrian regime and Iran.”

“We want a president who would not sell his history and the martyrs' dignity for the sake of his lust for power, a president who has not repeatedly insulted the martyrs in their graves,” said Rifi in a speech commemorating slain Internal Security Forces intelligence officer Major Wissam Eid and his companion Osama Merheb.