Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea has denied that he was hindering the election of a new president, laying the blame instead on his rival MP Michel Aoun, who heads the Free Patriotic Movement.

“Aoun is theoretically after the presidency but he is practically paralyzing the elections and suggesting” that the polls should not be held if he does not reach Baabda Palace, Geagea said.

Syrian refugees in Lebanon are facing increasing violence as tensions in the country rise after jihadists kidnapped and killed Lebanese security forces, a human rights group warned Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch said it had documented a string of attacks by Lebanese residents against Syrian refugees in August and September.

The security forces reopened on Tuesday the Masnaa road that leads to the border crossing with Syria in eastern Lebanon after it was blocked by the families of the troops and police taken hostage by jihadists.

The relatives are blocking other roads that are major arteries in northern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

The death toll in an attack on an army patrol in the northeastern border town of Arsal earlier this month rose to three on Tuesday, the military announced.

The army said in a communique that soldier Mahmoud Ali Fadel, who had been injured in the roadside bombing, succumbed to his injuries on Monday night.

Speaker Nabih Berri has expressed severe frustration at criticism directed against the army, rejecting verbal assaults on the military, which is caught in a battle with jihadists on the border with Syria.

“The army's soldiers and officers are among the best and we are proud of them,” Berri was quoted by An Nahar daily as saying on Tuesday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat has so far excluded Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea from his visit to top Lebanese officials after the latter refused to hold talks with presidential candidate Aley MP Henri Helou, a report said Tuesday.

Helou, who is the centrist PSP's candidate for the presidency, had contacted the LF leadership to set a date for a meeting with Geagea, al-Akhbar daily quoted PSP officials as saying.

The head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, who made a one-day visit to Beirut on Tuesday, said that Tehran will provide military assistance to Lebanon.

Ali Shamkhani made the announcement following talks with Prime Minister Tammam Salam at the Grand Serail.

The Netherlands has promised to assist the Lebanese Army with weapons worth 2.3 million dollars, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil announced on Monday.

“We discussed with the Dutch foreign minister means to counter terrorism in the region. We also discussed the bilateral relations between the two countries and how to develop them,” Bassil stated on his Twitter account after a meeting with his Dutch counterpart Frans Timmermans in The Netherlands.

The Kataeb Party on Monday warned against approving draft laws under the slogan of “necessary legislation” amid the current presidential void, as it deplored a recent Syrian opposition statement accusing the Lebanese army of abuse against refugees.

The party “warns against any parliamentary course that might lead to legitimizing the presidential vacuum, which would violate the simplest rules of democracy, constitutional norms and the requirements of national coexistence,” Kataeb said in a statement issued after its politburo's weekly meeting.

Military Examining Magistrate Judge Fadi Sawan indicted on Monday a Syrian national for involvement in terrorist activities in Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Sawan said in his indictment that Sami Baqir, a member of an armed terrorist organization, had smuggled Syrian citizens from Lebanon to Syria and the other way around.