Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea expressed hope that the rival lawmakers would end up agreeing on a new electoral law as a parliamentary committee kick off on Monday talks on the controversial issue.

“The meeting of the committee this time is not just aimed at holding discussions. The evidence to that is the one-month deadline for consensus,” said Geagea.

An extremist group formed of veiled females, linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), is secretly working in several areas in northern Lebanon and spreading the “takfiri salafist ideology,” Ad-Diyar newspaper reported on Monday.

The group is comprised of veiled women who are reportedly recruiting girls in return for large sums of money and convincing them of adopting their ideology.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam expressed hope on Monday that the political arch-foes would reach an agreement on a modern electoral law that has a better parliamentary representation.

“Efforts should be exerted on all levels to agree on a consensual electoral law,” Salam said in comments published in al-Joumhouria newspaper.

Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat have said they are exerting efforts to launch dialogue between Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal movement.

Local dailies published on Monday quoted Berri as saying that he and Jumblat were seeking to open channels of dialogue between the rival parties.

The captors of the Lebanese troops and policemen threatened Sunday to murder seven of them if Lebanese authorities enforce recent life imprisonment sentences against a number of Islamist inmates at the Roumieh prison.

“The wife of the abductee Khaled Moqbel Hassan received a phone call from the captors, who threatened to kill 7 servicemen if life imprisonment sentences against 5 Roumieh Islamist inmates were not revoked,” LBCI TV reported in the evening.

Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh on Sunday said he rejects the election of any president who does not enjoy so-called “Christian legitimacy,” noting that he prefers continued vacuum at the Baabda Palace over the election of a “centrist president.”

“There is nothing new in the issue of the presidency and the circumstances are not ripe for the election of a president,” Franjieh said in an interview on al-Jadeed television.

A shepherd was injured on Sunday when a suspicious item exploded in the southern town of Kharayeb, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The NNA said that the shepherd sustained injuries after the suspicious item exploded. He was admitted to Jabal Amel Hospital for treatment.

The United States Embassy in Lebanon denied on Sunday a report saying that Washington had filed an official complaint to the Lebanese government for attempting to strike a deal with Russia on supplying the army with used T-72 tanks.

The embassy stressed in comments to Naharnet that “the report is false.”

The March 14 alliance rejects to engage in any dialogue with Hizbullah ahead of the election of a new president, the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper reported on Sunday.

Sources close to the coalition called on Hizbullah to take positive stances that would encourage all political sides to resume dialogue.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam expressed frustration on Sunday over his cabinet's lack of productivity, considering that the sharp political rift in the country has a direct impact on the government's work.

“The cabinet is using half its capacities,” Salam told An Nahar newspaper, urging all sides to revitalize the government work so that it will once again be productive.