The Lebanese Army on Sunday arrested a defected Syrian officer in the Bekaa border town of Arsal.

“Mahmoud Abbas, a Syrian defected colonel and member of the Syrian Revolution Military Council, was arrested in Arsal's Wadi Hmayyed,” state-run National News Agency reported. It said the man was arrested at a Lebanese Army checkpoint in Wadi Hmayyed.

The Internal Security Forces on Sunday managed to seize three kilograms of hashish in the Jbeil region.

“Members of the Jbeil police station confiscated in the Jbeil area of Mastita three kilos of hashish,” state-run National News Agency reported.

Hizbullah on Sunday called for overcoming the controversial issue of portfolio rotation which is delaying the formation of the new cabinet, noting that “some parties had deliberately created obstacles with the aim of targeting a party that represents the majority of Christians.”

“Why is there no agreement on an inclusive cabinet that represents all Lebanese according to their political and parliamentary weights and why should we keep spinning in an endless loop over the obstacle of portfolio rotation?” head of Hizbullah's juristic committee Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek said during a memorial service in Baalbek.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour stressed on Sunday the need for Lebanon to enjoy a strong army “capable of deterring any Israeli assault,” reported Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).

He told the radio: “We should not compare Syria's actions towards Lebanon to Israeli assaults against the country.”

President Michel Suleiman deemed on Sunday as “shameful” the ongoing delay in the formation of a new government.

He said: “Committing to Lebanon is more important than hanging on to a specific minister.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun announced on Sunday his support for the recently-declared Bkirki treaty, saying that he will see that it is implemented.

He said: “We want to help implement it because it embodies the principles that Lebanon was built upon.”

U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Francois Hollande are scheduled to hold talks in Washington on Monday to tackle a number of issues, including the situation in Lebanon, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Sunday.

It said that they are likely to address “the extent to which Iran can take part in forming a new Lebanese government.”

A stun grenade was hurled on Saturday evening in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Haret Saida in the southern city of Sidon, the state-run National News Agency reported.

"The grenade was hurled near the gate of an orchard in the neighborhood," the NNA said.

The army on Saturday raided the house of Nawaf al-Hussein in the village of Jlala near Shtaura in the Bekaa and arrested him over his alleged links to Sheikh Omar al-Atrash.

"An army unit raided a house in Jlala and arrested its owner Nawaf al-Hussein,” the state-run National News Agency reported.

The Higher Islamic Council announced on Saturday forming a legal and technical committee to prepare for the upcoming elections to replace the current Grand Mufti before the end of his mandate.

"We discussed Dar al-Fatwa's questionable current situation and we formed a committee to prepare the road for an election to choose a new Grand Mufti,” a statement released by the HIC said after a meeting chaired by its deputy head Omar Mesqawi.