Prime Minister Tammam Salam criticized on Monday the performance of his cabinet, expressing hope that the political arch-foes would facilitate things instead of complicating them.

“The cabinet is exerting efforts to resolve the Syrian refugees and abducted servicemen crises,” Salam said in comments published in several local newspapers.

Speaker Nabih Berri has said that both Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal movement agreed not to have preconditions on their expected dialogue on the crises gripping the country.

“This issue has been settled and is now behind us,” local dailies published on Monday quoted Berri as saying.

A couple and their relative were kidnapped Sunday in the northern city of Tripoli in connection with a marriage dispute.

“A man, his wife and his cousin were abducted in the Tripoli area of al-Dam wal Farz over family disputes,” state-run National News Agency revealed, denying earlier media reports that said the abductees were two women and a child.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea is willing to compete with Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun for the presidency but he cannot compel the other candidates to withdraw from the race, LF bloc MP George Adwan has announced.

Geagea “is ready to contend with General Aoun for the presidential post, but we can't oblige others to refrain from nominating themselves,” Adwan said in an interview with al-Liwaa newspaper to be published Monday.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam received on Sunday a message from French President Francois Hollande on the occasion of Independence Day, during which he expressed France's keenness on Lebanon's unity, stability, and sovereignty.

He added: “As prime minister, you are keen on safeguarding state institutions at this critical time and this should be translated into the election of a president as soon as possible.”

The army carried out on Sunday raids against a number of houses in the northern region of Bhannine in search of wanted suspects, reported the National News Agency.

It said that it arrested a suspect linked to clashes that erupted in the region last month.

Kataeb Party leader Amin Gemayel condemned on Sunday the ongoing vacuum in the presidency, calling for holding a dialogue session in order to elect a president.

He said: “We fear that the unconstitutional obstruction of the polls is aimed at paving the way to altering the Lebanese entity.”

A meat shop was shut in the northern city of Tripoli on Sunday for failing to meet food safety standards as health safety inspectors were assaulted in the Sabra region in Beirut.

The National News Agency said that the meat shop, located at the Abou Ali roundabout, was closed after spoiled food was discovered there.

The upcoming weeks could be decisive in determining the election of a president given the regional and international interest to end the vacuum at the Baabda Palace, reported the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat on Sunday.

Christian sources from the March 14 camp told the daily that France, the Vatican, and Saudi Arabia are pressuring Lebanese powers to end the vacuum.

Democratic Gathering MP and presidential candidate Henri Helou criticized Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun's initiative aimed at ending the presidential deadlock, saying that it basically calls for eliminating the other, reported the Kuwaiti daily al-Anba on Sunday.

He told the daily: “His initiative lacks the most basic principles of democracy.”