Speaker Nabih Berri expected the dialogue between Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal to salvage Lebanon in the absence of a head of state despite his concern that the presidential deadlock needs a solution from abroad.

“The dialogue salvages (the country) from vacuum amid the lack of signs that it would end soon,” Berri's visitors quoted him as saying.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader and ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed the importance of dialogue and moderation to combat the terrorism of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), local newspapers reported on Tuesday.

Hariri's statement came during a meeting for the leaders and members of al-Mustaqbal movement at the Center House in downtown Beirut on Monday night.

The Qaida-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades warned the Lebanese security agencies from continuing their war against Sunnis in Lebanon and detaining their youth, considering the apparatuses a direct enemy.

“Any Lebanese security agency that participates in oppressing the Sunnis in Lebanon and Syria will be our direct enemy,” the brigades said in a statement under the title “a message to the Lebanese people, government and army - 2.”

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi confirmed on Tuesday that a plot to kill former pro-Syrian Information Minister Michel Samaha, who is on trial on terrorism charges, has been thwarted.

Rifi told al-Liwaa newspaper that he had received information from a highly credible security agency that Samaha would be killed during his transfer to hospital for having information about the Syrian regime.

Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Monday hit back at al-Mustaqbal movement leader MP Saad Hariri, saying all Lebanese should go to Syria to fight the “serious and real” threat terrorism poses to the entire region, as he stressed keenness on the ongoing dialogue between the two parties.

“I tell those who are asking us to withdraw from Syria, 'Let us go together to Syria and Iraq and to any place that contains a threat to the future of our nation, because that is the right way to defend Lebanon,'” said Nasrallah in a televised speech commemorating Hizbullah's “martyr leaders” – Sheikh Ragheb Harb, Sayyed Abbas al-Moussawi and Imad Mughniyeh.

The army confiscated on Monday at least 400 kilograms of drugs in the eastern Bekaa region as part of raids against wanted suspects.

It said in a statement that 70 kgs of processed and 400 kgs of unprocessed cannabis were seized during raids on the Dar al-Wasia area in Baalbek.

Kataeb Party MP Sami Gemayel welcomed on Monday the dialogue between the Free Patriotic Movement and Lebanese Forces and the dialogue between the Mustaqbal Movement and Hizbullah, hoping that they would address the deadlock over the presidential elections.

He said: “We hope that these talks would set the elections as a priority.”

Syrian refugees make up the majority of children living and working on the streets of Lebanon, with many of them illiterate and surviving by begging, a study released Monday said.

The survey of 18 areas in Lebanon identified more than 1,500 children living and working on the street, although its authors said the real number nationwide could be three times higher.

Adviser to the Justice Minister Judge Mohammed Saab stressed on Monday that the judiciary will show no leniency in the food-safety file and that punishment against violators could reach up to “15 years imprisonment or hard labor.”

“The judiciary is following up closely on the food-safety campaign launched by Health Minister Wael Abou Faour, and it will not show leniency in imposing punishment on violators who are threatening the citizens' safety and lives,” said Saab in an interview with An Nahar.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has said the region's conditions compel the Lebanese to elect a centrist president and stressed that the cabinet sessions would remain suspended pending an agreement on a productive work mechanism

Salam told two local dailies in interviews published on Monday that the international community had given up on its mission to resolve Lebanon's president crisis.