Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi called on Tuesday for the election of a president, the implementation of the Constitution and the control of illegitimate weapons, urging the newly-inaugurated Grand Mufti to protect Lebanon's common Christian-Muslim culture.

“It is our duty as religious officials not to remain silent to violations of the country's principles and constitutional framework,” said al-Rahi during talks with Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan at Dar al-Fatwa.

The continued captivity of soldiers and policemen by jihadists is threatening to spiral out of control after their families took escalatory measures and Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said the authorities would not negotiate with the terrorists unless they provide guarantees that they wouldn't execute more captives.

“We want absolute guarantees that the abductors will stop killing (more captives) before we discuss anything else,” al-Mashnouq told As Safir daily in remarks published on Tuesday.

The Lebanese Army's chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Walid Suleiman is scheduled to travel to Moscow next week to discuss with Russian officials military assistance to Lebanon.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq, who recently visited Russia, said Suleiman will follow up the meetings that he held with the Russian officials.

The wife of captive soldier Ali al-Bazzal announced Monday that she was able to meet his kidnappers who belong to al-Nusra Front and that she received a list of their demands.

The meeting took place in the outskirts of the Bekaa border town of Arsal, according to media reports.

The Kataeb Party on Monday called on the government to devise “alternative plans” to address the crisis of the captive troops, stressing that the election of a new president is the top priority amid these circumstances.

In a statement issued after its political bureau's weekly meeting, the party condemned the recent bombing against the army in the Arsal region, which left two troops dead, noting that attacks on the army are aimed at eliminating its “national role in countering terrorism and maintaining stability.”

The Lebanese army on Monday distanced itself from a video showing troops abusing Syrian detainees in an area where soldiers have battled jihadists, saying the incident was "isolated."

The video, which appeared online over the weekend and quickly provoked widespread outrage on social media, shows around 30 Syrian men lying on the ground, some with their hands bound.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea lamented on Monday the current situation in Lebanon, criticizing how some major files are being tackled.

He said via Twitter: “A number of strategic errors have led Lebanon to this current state.”

Around 40 people were hospitalized in eastern Lebanon on suspicion of suffering from food poisoning after eating at a restaurant, the state-run National News Agency reported on Monday.

The cases were registered in the district of Baalbek, NNA said.

The Lebanese army blew up on Monday a suitcase placed on the side of a road in the eastern Bekaa Valley on suspicion that it contained explosives.

The bag was discovered on the Qob Elias road.

The angry families of the soldiers and policemen taken captive by jihadists blocked on Monday the Qalamoun highway and the Dahr al-Baidar road to demand their release, while the Muslim Scholars Committee accused some government powers of obstructing negotiations in their case.

The soldiers and members of the Internal Security Forces were kidnapped when militants from the al-Qaida-linked al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State group overran the northeastern border town of Arsal in August.