Head of ODAS company Admiral Edouard Guillaud is scheduled to return to Lebanon next week in order to place the finishing touches of the Saudi-French arms deal for the army, reported the daily al-Mustaqbal on Sunday.

The French official is scheduled to arrive in Lebanon on Tuesday to make the final signatures of the deal ahead of its implementation.

Bishop Samir Mazloum ruled out a breakthrough in the crisis over the presidential elections due to the “wide gap” between the concerned officials and “their ties to regional and international powers,” reported the Kuwaiti daily al-Seyassah on Sunday.

He told the daily: “The Maronite Patriarchate in Bkirki currently sees no point in bringing together the Maronite leaders in order to reach a positive outcome on the presidency given their foreign commitments.”

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani is expected to arrive in Lebanon at the beginning of next week in a what is seen as precursor to the expected dialogue between the Mustaqbal Movement and Hizbullah, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

Larijani's visit is expected to pave the way for the talks that media reports said will be held on December 29.

The Lebanese army detained several suspects for carrying out terror-linked acts, including a Syrian national, who was infiltrating into the northeastern border town of Arsal.

The army said in a communique issued on Saturday that Syrian national Mohammed Mustapha Mustapha was detained while trying to infiltrate illegally into Lebanese territories by evading checkpoints.

State security agents briefly detained on Saturday in a raid Ten Syrian nationals linked to terrorist organizations, the state-run National News Agency reported.

According to NNA, the Syrians were holding a meeting at a house in the town of Dhour al-Abadiyeh in Baalchmih in the Mount Lebanon district of Aley.

MP Robert Ghanem, head of the electoral subcommittee, stressed on Saturday that the elections law will not be adopted before the election a new president, who should have certain characteristics.

Ghanem expressed hope in an interview with An Nahar newspaper that the rival parties reach a settlement over the presidential deadlock, considering that the subcommittee's meetings are to facilitate any parliamentary session set to vote on an electoral law immediately after the election of a new head of state.

Salafist cleric Wissam al-Masri warned on Saturday that the failure to strike a deal with the Islamist militants, who are holding several Lebanese soldiers and policemen captive, threatens the lives of the servicemen, revealing that he will head to the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal soon.

“We are exerting all efforts to resolve the case,” Masri said in an interview with As Safir newspaper, expressing belief that the servicemen “will not be well if the negotiations collapsed.”

The arrest of prominent leaders of the Free Syrian Army and the al-Qaida-affiliate Nusra Front weakened the two groups, which prompted several fighters to defect them and pledge allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), media reports on Saturday.

According to a report published in As Safir newspaper, ISIL would eventually be compelled to engage in a large-scale battle with the Lebanese Army and Hizbullah.

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.

The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution Friday asking Israel to pay Lebanon over $850 million in damages for an oil spill caused by an Israeli air force attack on oil storage tanks during its war with Hizbullah in July 2006.

The assembly voted 170-6 in favor of the resolution, with three abstentions. Israel, the United States, Canada, Australia, Micronesia and Marshall Islands voted "no."