Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi arrived in France on Saturday after a four-day visit to Armenia where he attended the centenary commemoration of the Armenian genocide.

Al-Rahi arrived at the Le Bourget Airport on board a private jet put at his disposal by Deputy Prime Minister Issam Fares.

The Army intelligence detained several Syrian nationals in the Bekaa region and seized a factory used for manufacturing bombs.

According to a statement issued by the army on Saturday, an army intelligence unit raided a bomb-making factory in the town of al-Marj in the west Bekaa, detaining four Syrian nationals.

Controversial reports surfaced on Saturday over an alleged Israeli airstrike on Hizbullah and Syrian military posts in the strategic Qalamoun region.

Al-Arabiya's Al-Hadath TV channel reported on Saturday that Israel targeted overnight a missile depot in the region.

Al-Mustaqal Movement parliamentary bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora stressed on Saturday that Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun has no chances of reaching the presidential palace in Baabda.

“The hijacked presidency is ruining the country's reputation,” Saniora's visitors quoted him as saying in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

Hizbullah has allegedly constructed a runway that consists of a single unpaved strip with a length of 670 meter and width of 20 meter in the Bekaa town of Hermel to operate its drones.

IHS Jane's Defense Weekly said in a report that the area is remote and unpopulated.

Preparations are underway for a two-day visit by Irish President Michael D. Higgins, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Saturday.

A European diplomatic source told the daily that Higgins will arrive in Beirut on Sunday night on an official visit.

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji vowed on Saturday to continue his war on terror to prevent it from infiltrating into Lebanon.

“The challenges are enormous,” Qahwaji said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader and former Prime Minister Saad Hariri continued his visit to Washington on Friday and met with U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice, and the Deputy Secretary of Defense Christine Wormuth.

According to a statement issued by Hariri's press office his meeting with Rice focused on the situation in Lebanon and the latest developments in the region, particularly in the Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Lebanon's Armenians held a protest on Friday to mark the 100th anniversary of when some 250 Armenian intellectuals were rounded up by Ottoman Turks as the first step of the genocide against them.

The protesters marched from the Armenian Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia to the town of Bourj Hammoud to demand the recognition of the genocide that was committed around the time of World War I.

Ex-PM Saad Hariri held talks Friday with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in Washington and noted that his Mustaqbal movement is fighting the “extremism” of Hizbullah and other groups.

A statement issued by Hariri's office said the White House meeting focused on the situation in Lebanon and the latest developments in the region, “particularly what is happening in Syria, Iraq and Yemen."