Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh lauded on Tuesday the dialogue between the political arch-foes.

“I am in principle with dialogue between any two parties,” Franjieh said in comments published in al-Mustaqbal newspaper, praising the first round of talks that kicked off between al-Mustaqbal Movement and Hizbullah.

Kataeb Party leader Amin Gemayel welcomed the expected talks between Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun and Samir Geagea, the head of the Lebanese Forces.

“We encourage dialogue between all (party) leaderships to salvage the Republic,” Gemayel told al-Mustaqbal newspaper in remarks published on Monday.

Hizbullah member Hajj Mahmoud Qmati will assume the tasks of the party's politburo member Ghaleb Abou Zaynab and oversee Hizbullah's relationship with Christian parties.

“Abou Zaynab's resignation from handling Hizbullah's ties with Christian political parties has no links to the party... It is personal,” Qmati said in comments published in al-Joumhouria newspaper on Monday.

The French foreign ministry's director for North Africa and the Middle East affairs is expected to travel to Riyadh, Tehran and the Vatican in an attempt to resolve the Lebanese presidential deadlock, pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper said Jean-François Girault will travel to Saudi Arabia on January 5. He is then scheduled to make a trip to Iran and later head to the Vatican for talks with top officials on Lebanon's presidential crisis.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea considered on Tuesday the flurry of political activity that the Lebanese capital is witnessing to press the election of a new head of state “useless.”

“The election of a new head of state is a mere Lebanese process that relies on the parliamentary blocs,” Geagea said in an interview with the Saudi newspaper al-Jazirah, lashing out at the two blocs that are impeding the process, the Free Patriotic Movement and its ally Hizbullah.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea has said that he “intended” to meet with his rival Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun, vowing not to give up on the talks easily.

“There is no set date but the intention is there,” Geagea told al-Akhbar newspaper in an interview published on Monday.

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed pessimism on Saturday regarding the new electoral law, considering that the rival parties will not reach consensus over the matter.

“I expect that the 1960 electoral law to remain for a long time,” Berri's visitors quoted him as saying in comments published in al-Joumhouria newspaper.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun confirmed that he would hold unconditional talks with his rival Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea but refused to give up his candidacy for the presidential post.

Aoun told al-Akhbar daily in an interview published on Thursday that he would meet with Geagea when the LF chief returns from his visit to Riyadh.

A high-ranking al-Mustaqbal movement delegation traveled Wednesday to Saudi Arabia to discuss Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea's possible withdrawal from the presidential run.

According to state-run National News Agency, the delegation was led by head of al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Fouad Saniora and Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq.

Hizbullah and the Free Patriotic Movement expressed reservations on tasking the Muslim Scholars Committee with negotiating the release of Lebanese soldiers and policemen taken hostage by Islamist gunmen.

According to the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat, Hizbullah rejects tasking the committee with negotiations over its ongoing campaign against the party and its intervention in the war raging in the neighboring country Syria.