Abu Ibrahim, the head of the armed group that abducted the 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims in Syria, refuses to negotiate with Lebanon’s General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim over their release, LBCI television reported on Sunday.

Ali Aqil Khalil, the ambassador of the International Organization for Human Rights to Lebanon, told LBCI that he telephoned Abu Ibrahim who said that he rejects General Ibrahim as a possible negotiator due to the General Security’s latest deportation of 14 Syrians to their strife-torn country.

Former prime minister Saad Hariri on Sunday held talks in Doha with Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani.

Talks tackled “the latest developments in the Arab world,” his office said.

Some 600 Palestinian families have arrived in Lebanon from Syria, most of them fleeing violence at the Yarmuk refugee camp in Damascus, a Palestinian official in Lebanon said on Sunday.

"Some 600 Palestinian families have arrived in Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camps in the past three days," said Marwan Abdel Aal of the Lebanese branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel on Sunday announced that the government would provide compensations to the Bekaa’s cannabis farmers whose crops were and will be destroyed.

Speaking from the Bekaa town of al-Yammouneh, whose residents have staged a sit-in in protest at the destruction of cannabis crops, Charbel said he will raise the issue during a cabinet session on Monday and that he will suggest three proposals, one of which would be paying compensations to the farmers.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi reiterated on Sunday the Maronite bishops council’s warning earlier this week of an economic collapse in Lebanon should the current situation in the country persist.

He said during his Sunday sermon: “Lebanon is in need of revitalizing its people, leadership, and structure in order to allow it to keep up with modernity and globalization.”

President Michel Suleiman is continuing his consultations to resume the national dialogue on August 16 as he is seeking to ensure that all participants are present at the all-party talks, reported the daily al-Mustaqbal on Sunday.

Sources close to the president highlighted the need to resume the talks amid the critical local and regional situation.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel is seeking to develop a security plan for the southern city of Sidon given the ongoing tensions since the end of Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir’s sit-in on Wednesday, reported the daily al-Mustaqbal on Sunday.

The minister tasked on Saturday the heads of various security agencies in the city to propose suggestions over the security plan, security sources told the daily.

The residents of the Bekaa town of al-Yammouneh staged on Saturday a sit-in in protest against the destruction of cannabis crops in the region, reported the daily al-Mustaqbal on Sunday.

The residents blocked with burning tires the three entrances leading to the town and its fields, setting up a tent in the middle of the road to protest the army and security forces’ destruction of the cannabis crops.

Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili is scheduled to visit Lebanon on Monday where he is expected to meet with a number of senior officials, various media reports said on Sunday.

The pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat stated that the talks will focus on the developments in Syria, with some sources describing his meetings as “crisis talks” given the escalation of events in the neighboring country.

The 14 Syrians, who were deported by the Lebanese authorities, were released on Saturday amid reports saying that one of them returned back to Lebanon.

Al-Jadeed television station said that the Syrian authorities released the 14 men.