U.S. Ambassador David Hale has said that jihadists are seeking to saw the seeds of hate in Lebanon but that the Lebanese are capable of defeating them if they stay committed to state institutions.

“Extremist groups from across the border seek to sow seeds of hate, divide the Lebanese people, and destroy our shared values of mutual respect and understanding,” said Hale on Monday at a ceremony held in BIEL on the occasion of U.S. Independence Day.

Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal movement agreed Monday that the country's political forces must try and create an “appropriate atmosphere” for the proper functioning of state institutions.

“The conferees discussed the current developments and situations in the country,” said a joint statement issued by the two parties after their 13th dialogue session in Ain al-Tineh.

The army on Monday arrested several Syrians in the eastern Bekaa region on terrorism charges.

"Army intelligence agents arrested a terrorist group comprising 4 Syrians in Jib Janine and Kamid el-Loz in western Bekaa," LBCI television reported in the evening.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stressed on Monday that it was unacceptable for the presidential vacuum to last more than a year, hoping for a divine “interference” in the country's blood-stained history.

“We continue to pray for the election of a president, for stability and for a comprehensive reconciliation,” al-Rahi said at the opening of the synod of Maronite Bishops in Bkirki.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat does not intend to host Syria's Druze in areas where the sect is concentrated in Lebanon, sources said, as a PSP delegation visited Turkey to contain the repercussions of the killing of at least 20 Druze in the neighboring country.

Sources close to Jumblat denied to the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily published on Monday reports that the PSP chief would host Druze from Syria in Lebanon's Shouf district to guarantee their safety.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam is not likely to call for a cabinet session this week to allow the rival parties to agree on ways to manage the state's affairs without clashing on the controversial issue of high-ranking officials.

An official close to Salam told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat published on Monday that Salam gave the parties two weeks to continue to hold contacts and avoid a cabinet paralysis.

An al-Nusra Front official has revealed that the Islamic State extremist group is plotting a terrorist attack in northern Lebanon in the coming weeks, As Safir daily reported on Monday.

The newspaper said the official claimed on his Twitter account that the IS is planning for “a huge operation against the Lebanese army” in the northern city of Tripoli at the start of the holy month of Ramadan.

Speaker Nabih Berri has warned that the country can no longer bear the consequences of paralysis, saying the verbal feud between the rival parties would not have an impact on their dialogue.

“The situation can no longer tolerate a government or parliamentary paralysis and contacts and efforts are being made to guarantee a cabinet session and an extraordinary legislative session to adopt urgent draft-laws,” Berri told several local dailies published on Monday.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has held a meeting with Western ambassadors, who insisted that they would exert all efforts to prevent a cabinet paralysis, diplomatic sources said on Monday.

The sources told An Nahar and al-Joumhouria newspapers, that the meeting between Salam and the ambassadors of the United States, France and Britain took place on Saturday night.

MP Sami Gemayel won the internal elections of the Kataeb Party on Sunday, becoming the party's seventh chairman and succeeding his father, former Lebanese president Amin Gemayel.

Gemayel received 339 votes as his only contender, the journalist Pierre Atallah, garnered only 37.