A Hizbullah delegation tackled on Friday with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi pressing issues in the country foremost the importance of electing a president who represents all the Lebanese, holding onto the party's point of view regarding the patriarch's Jerusalem visit.

“We hope al-Rahi would take into consideration our stance on his visit to Jerusalem,” Hizbullah's politburo chief Sayyed Ibrahim Amin al-Sayyed, who headed the delegation, told reporters at Bkirki.

Iran is recruiting Afghan refugees to fight in Syria to reduce casualties among Iranian Guards personnel and Hizbullah, a Western official said late Thursday.

Tehran strongly denies its forces are directly involved in the Syrian conflict but Hizbullah publicly acknowledged in April last year that it has been fighting alongside President Bashar Assad's troops.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has said that the agreement on a consensual presidential candidate required an understanding between Iran and Saudi Arabia coupled with the cooperation of the rival parties with Hizbullah and its baker Tehran.

An official close to Jumblat told Addiyar daily that the PSP chief denied rumors that Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun would be elected president if ex-PM Saad Hariri, who leads al-Mustaqbal movement, gave his consent.

Inmate Elias Hassan escaped at dawn Friday from al-Salam hospital in the northern city of Tripoli despite being under a heavy supervision.

However, the National News Agency reported that Hassan fled al-Qobbeh prison at 3:00 am on Friday.

An appeals court Thursday upheld a judge's decision that a Canadian-Lebanese man should be extradited to France in connection with a 1980 Paris synagogue bombing that killed four people.

The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that the lower-court judge and the federal justice minister made no legal errors in concluding Hassan Diab should be handed to French authorities.

Hizbullah will not support the candidacy of any nominee but its ally Michel Aoun, the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, for the presidency.

Hizbullah officials stressed in comments to al-Akhbar newspaper published on Friday that the “party supports Aoun for presidency unless he has changed his mind.”

The Vatican considers the presidential elections in Lebanon as a battle of existence that surpasses the Maronites and focuses on the active Christians role in state posts in the country and the Middle East.

Sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Friday that the Vatican is persuading the United States Administration and world powers to safeguard the presidential polls and avert any vacuum at the helm of Lebanon's most important Christian post.

Three Internal Security Forces members were injured during a morning raid carried out in search for a wanted criminal in the northeastern town of Arsal, the ISF announced Friday.

The ISF identified the 28-year-old suspect with his initials as M.Kh., saying he attacked the police unit with three hand grenades and opened fire on them, wounding two ISF officers and one policeman.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam is scheduled to travel to Saudi Arabia on Monday, in his first official visit abroad since the formation of his cabinet in February.

Salam is expected to meet with Saudi King Abdullah and several top Saudi officials.

A cabinet session set to be held at the Baabda Palace on Friday was moved to the Grand Serail after sharp disputes loomed on the appointment of the Military Council as ministers will tackle the establishment of a cell to follow up the ongoing Syrian refugees crisis.

Ministerial sources said in remarks published in al-Liwaa newspaper that the session will be held at the Grand Serail to avert any possible dispute, which was on the agenda of the ministerial meet.