Health Minister Wael Abou Faour described on Tuesday food storage areas at the Rafik Hariri International Airport as a “barn” and “death chambers for the citizens' health.”

“You feel you are entering a dump when you go into the depots,” he said during a joint press conference with Public Works and Transport Minister Ghazi Zoaiter.

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.

The customs at Rafik Hariri International Airport thwarted an attempt to smuggle 14 kilograms of cocaine to Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency reported on Tuesday.

NNA said that customs agents found the drugs with a 22-year-old Brazilian passenger who arrived to Beirut at dawn via Abu Dhabi.

A woman and six children survived on Tuesday after their car drifted off the road and plunged into the sea on Tripoli's Qalamoun highway.

The state-run National News Agency reported that the woman was slightly injured and admitted to al-Ninni hospital in Tripoli.

Hizbullah secretary-general's political aide Hussein Khalil stressed on Tuesday that the party has been holding onto its stances for the past three years.

“Our hand is always extended to our partners in the country,” Khalil said in an interview with al-Akhbar newspaper.

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi announced Monday that he “personally” trusts Arsal deputy municipal chief Ahmed Fleiti, who has embarked on a mediation mission in the case of the captive servicemen, while noting that the man has not yet received an official authorization from the government.

The Kataeb party demanded on Monday putting an end to the “confusion” stemming from the numerous mediation efforts aimed at releasing the servicemen abducted from the northeastern border town of Arsal in August.

It said in a statement after its weekly politburo meeting: “Decisive action should be taken regarding the negotiations in the file in order to end this confusion.”

Iran's visiting Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Monday that Hizbullah is an active movement and plays a positive role in the region.

“Some movements are more effective than states. Hizbullah is an example. It plays a positive role in the region,” he said.

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 has said that the cabinet is expected to discuss soon oil exploration decrees that have been left in the government's drawers over political differences.

In remarks published in local newspapers on Monday, Berri reiterated that the exploration file “has been put on the right track.”