A 25-year-old Lebanese man has been kidnapped by armed men in the eastern Bekaa Valley and taken to Syria, his father claimed on Sunday.

Ali Sharafeddine, who hails from the area of al-Nabi Inaam in the eastern city of Baalbek, told police that his son Hussein was kidnapped on Sunday morning while on a hunting trip with three others.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi said Sunday that Lebanon's Christians should not be bystanders in the sectarian war, rather they should make an initiative to resolve it.

The Christians “cannot and do not have the right to be bystanders in the ongoing political-confessional conflict,” al-Rahi said in his sermon during mass in Bkirki.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani warned on Sunday that “the governments of streets” will take control of Lebanon if the Lebanese rival parties failed to form a new cabinet.

In his message on the occasion of Islamic New Year, Qabbani said: “If a fair cabinet was not formed in Lebanon soon … then the governments of streets, neighborhoods and regions will be in charge.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun said Sunday it was the duty of Arab regimes to protect Christians in the Orient, warning against the rise of Salafist groups.

“The responsibility to preserve the security of the Christians in the Orient lies on the Arab regimes,” Aoun told the Christians of the Orient conference that closed on Sunday.

Al-Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora condemned on Sunday the attack on residents of a rival neighborhood in the northern city of Tripoli, saying the perpetrators should be brought to justice.

“This heinous crime that targeted Lebanese civilians from Jabal Mohsen only serves Lebanon's enemies and reminds us of the suspicious crimes that it has been recently witnessing,” Saniora said in a statement.

Contacts between the rival parties is frozen due to the security incidents in the country and the March 14 alliance's insistence for Hizbullah to withdraw from Syria, a minister in the resigned cabinet has said.

An Nahar daily quoted the minister as saying in remarks published Sunday that there was not yet any sign of hope for a solution to the cabinet crisis.

The army has arrested one of the suspects in the bus attack in the northern city of Tripoli and identified the rest of the assailants, the military command said.

The army leadership said in its communique late Saturday that Yehya Samir Mohammed, a Syrian, has been arrested and that soldiers were pursuing the remaining three suspects.

The Higher Islamic Council led by ex-minister Omar Misqawi on Saturday said it has decided to extend its own term until June 2015 and called on Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani to resign to "preserve the unity of Muslims."

The meeting at the Mohammed al-Amin Mosque in downtown Beirut was attended by caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati, Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam, ex-PM Fouad Saniora and the members of the council, state-run National News Agency said.

President Michel Suleiman on Saturday condemned an armed attack on a bus carrying Jabal Mohsen residents that left at least six people wounded earlier in the day, as a judicial warrant for the arrest of the culprits was issued.

Suleiman also held phone talks with Army chief General Jean Qahwaji and Internal Security Forces acting chief Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous to inquire about the incident's details and the measures taken by security forces to contain the situation, according to the National News Agency.

At least six Jabal Mohsen residents were wounded when a van carrying 14 passengers came under gunfire at al-Mallouleh intersection in Tripoli on Saturday, state-run National News Agency reported.

“The army transported the wounded to the al-Saydeh Hospital in Zgharta for treatment,” NNA said.