Deputy Lebanese Forces leader and lawmaker George Adwan described on Monday the dialogue between the party and the Free Patriotic Movement as “positive,” stressing that Hizbullah's performance is thwarting the election of a new head of state.

“We have bridged the gaps and the ties are almost normal... The agreement document is almost 80 percent done,” Adwan said in an interview with An Nahar newspaper.

Speaker Nabih Berri has lauded the Lebanese army for confronting jihadists on the eastern border with Syria and arresting several terrorist networks.

In remarks to his visitors, Berri described the army's role as “a huge achievement that deserves appreciation and support.”

A Qatari-appointed mediator will head to the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal this week to resume negotiations with the kidnappers of Lebanese servicemen, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Monday.

Sources told the daily that the unnamed mediator will discuss with the abductors their demands and the list of detainees held in Lebanese prisons to be included in a prisoners swap deal.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has said that the recent successes of the Lebanese army against terrorists are due to the military aid to Lebanon and the support it is getting from across the political spectrum.

“The continued successes of the Lebanese army recently go back to military aid and the huge support that the political parties and citizens are providing it with,” Salam was quoted by An Nahar daily as telling his visitors.

A French delegation will reportedly arrive in Lebanon in the upcoming weeks to tackle the shipping of $3 billion worth of weapons paid for by Saudi Arabia to the Lebanese military.

According to As Safir newspaper published on Monday, a military-technical French delegation will discuss with the army command the delivery of the first batch of weapons that are expected to arrive in Lebanon in April.

Former pop star turned Islamic militant Fadel Shaker, who has been on the run for nearly two years, has said he wants to return to his "normal, natural life" with his friends and family.

In an interview with LBCI TV released Saturday, Shaker also denied fighting alongside the gunmen of Islamist cleric Ahmed al-Asir in the fierce 2013 clashes with the army in the Sidon suburb of Abra. At least 18 soldiers and dozens of gunmen were killed in the fighting.

Four people were wounded on Sunday in a brawl between Lebanese citizens and Syrian refugees in the southern town of Shebaa, state-run National News Agency reported.

“A financial dispute between a number of Lebanese residents and Syrian refugees escalated into a fistfight involving the use of batons and knives,” NNA said.

A cafeteria at a Tripoli vocational school was shut down on Sunday as well as a bakery and a pastry factory in the northern region of Akkar, after at least 10 people suffered food poisoning due to their consumption of cheese-filled pastries.

“After taking five samples from the al-Ammouri Bakery and the cafeteria of the Abi Samra Vocational School in Tripoli and sending them to the lab of the Commerce and Industry Chamber for analysis, it turned out that the water sample taken from the cafeteria was contaminated with the E. coli bacteria,” the Health Ministry said in a statement.

Several people were injured Sunday when a gas cylinder accidentally exploded at a bakery in the Iqlim al-Kharroub town of Ketermaya, state-run National News Agency reported.

“A gas cylinder blew up inside al-Sayyed Bakery near the mosque of the town of Ketermaya, leaving several people injured,” NNA said.

Minister of the Displaced Alice Shabtini has noted that Lebanon will not have a president before Iran and the United States reach a final nuclear agreement, as she pointed out that Hizbullah is “clinging to its arms because it is defending itself.”

“There is no possibility to elect a president before an agreement is reached between Iran and the U.S.,” Shabtini, who is one of three ministers loyal to ex-president Michel Suleiman, said.