The Syrian opposition rejected a proposal by former U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford for the rebels to negotiate with Hizbullah and other factions fighting alongside President Bashar Assad's troops as part of a political solution to the civil war.

In remarks published Thursday, the spokesman of the Syrian National Coalition, Louay Safi, said: “We only negotiate with the Syrians and we won't accept the participation of foreign militias that kill the Syrian people in the political solution.”

An Israeli reconnaissance air balloon flew on Thursday over the orchards of the southern border towns of Kfarkila and Adaisseh, the state-run National news agency reported.

According to NNA, the air balloon was equipped with developed surveillance cameras and could monitor the areas near the settlement of al-Mtolleh, which overlooks the Lebanese territories.

An agreement on the names of two candidates for the presidential elections is among many proposals set to be discussed during a planned meeting between the country's top four Maronite leaders, Bkirki spokesman Walid Ghayyad said Thursday.

Ghayyad told Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) that no date has yet been set for the meeting between Phalange leader Amin Gemayel, Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea and the head of Marada movement, Suleiman Franjieh.

A Lebanese citizen kidnapped on Thursday by masked gunmen on the Ablah road in the Bekaa was released in unknown circumstances, media reports said.

Antoine Daher al-Kaadi was reportedly in the custody of the army intelligence that will hand him over to his family after he gives his testimony.

Hizbullah had recently established a small military airport in the Bekaa city of Baalbek and is operating Iranian-made drones, the Saudi al-Watan daily reported on Thursday.

According to the daily, Hizbullah also created high-security secret tunnels and depots, that were dug under Iranian supervision.

President Michel Suleiman and al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri held talks in Paris on Wednesday night, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported.

The newspaper said Thursday that the meeting was held on the sidelines of a dinner banquet thrown by deputy Speaker Farid Makari in honor of Suleiman and the delegation that accompanied him to the International Support Group for Lebanon meet.

Senior officials discussed a controversial decision enforced by Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq to shut down two centers of filling gas canisters in Beirut's southern suburbs.

According to al-Liwaa newspaper published on Thursday, ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri contacted high-ranking officials to address the matter and resolve the repercussions caused by the shutting down of the two companies.

U.S. Ambassador David Hale is expected to visit Riyadh this weekend in an attempt to salvage the new government from the deadlock of the policy statement, al-Mustaqbal newspaper reported on Thursday.

The daily said Hale's expected talks with top Saudi officials are aimed at finding a solution to the impasse of the policy statement of Prime Minister Tammam Salam's government on the eve of the presidential elections.

The Qaida-inspired al-Nusra Front in Lebanon on Wednesday claimed responsibility for firing three rockets on the Bekaa town of al-Nabi Sheet, in the latest such attack this week.

“The heroes of al-Nusra Front in Lebanon shelled the lairs of the party of Iran (Hizbullah) with three Grad rockets in retaliation to its massacres in Syria,” the group said on its Twitter page.

President Michel Suleiman hoped on Wednesday that the international community will commit to pledges it had made towards Lebanon concerning tackling the Syrian refugees and assisting the Lebanese army.

He said: “We hope the international community will support the army to help it implement a defense strategy that I had proposed at the national dialogue.”