Eleven Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Syria appeared in good health on Tuesday after an LBC news team was able to interview them, but the men lashed out at the government for not doing enough to set them free.

“I won’t urge our state because I don’t consider myself that I have a state and I am no longer proud of being Lebanese,” said one of the pilgrims Abbas Shoaib.

A ministerial committee set up to resolve the problem of cannabis farmers in the eastern Bekaa valley will hold its first meeting on Tuesday, Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said.

Charbel told An Nahar daily that a solution to the cannabis fields mainly in Bekaa’s north is now in the hands of the committee that will discuss a development plan for the Baalbek-Hermel area during its meeting under Prime Minister Najib Miqati at the Grand Serail.

Senior Israeli security officials are warning that the biggest threat to Israel is not Iran’s missiles in case of a military strike by the Jewish state but a deadly response from Hizbullah, Israeli Ynet news reported.

A government source said that "Hizbullah is the long arm of Iran," adding that "this terrorist organization will undoubtedly barrage Israel with thousands of missiles. It won't begin with Kiryat Shmona and end in Haifa, but will reach further into Israel.

Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Monday hoped the rival March 14 camp will be “allowed” to return to the national dialogue table, warning that the alternative to dialogue would be “chaos.”

“Only dialogue is possible and no one wants to eliminate the other. We hope they will be allowed to return to dialogue and we hope dialogue will resume. Dialogue is prohibited in Syria because the Americans, the West and Israel are not allowing the Syrian opposition to engage in dialogue,” Nasrallah said in a televised address during an iftar banquet held by the women’s activities department of the Islamic Resistance Support Organization.

The families of the 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims who were abducted in Syria on Monday blocked the airport road to protest the Lebanese state's failure to secure their release.

State-run National News Agency said the protesters used their cars and motorcycles to block the highway in both directions.

Former prime minister Saad Hariri said a visit on Monday to Lebanon by Saeed Jalili, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, was “unwelcome in this critical period during which the Syrian people are suffering the most horrible types of massacres and destruction at the hands of Bashar Assad’s regime and its foreign protectors.”

“This visit also contradicts with the interest of the Lebanese people who cannot dissociate themselves from showing solidarity with their brothers in Syria or from the unified Arab stance demanding the resignation of Bashar Assad and an end to the Iranian regime’s interference in the Arab affairs in general and the Syrian and Lebanese affairs in particular,” Hariri added in a statement.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat praised on Monday President Michel Suleiman’s “important political positions” on Army Day, most notably his remarks that “there can be no partnership with the army and forces responsible for maintaining Lebanon’s security.”

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “We are seeking arms for the defense of Lebanon alone. We don’t want a defense strategy for the Hormuz Strait or any other area.”

Military Prosecutor Judge Saqr Saqr charged six people with forming an armed gang for the purpose of carrying out terrorist activities, the National News Agency reported on Monday.

NNA said that the six, five of whom are arrested while the other is still at large, were also accused of the possession, transportation and manufacturing of arms and explosives.

Top Iranian official Saeed Jalili called on Monday for intense consultations between Tehran and Beirut to preserve stability and security in the region.

“We should work together through the intense consultations and exchange of viewpoints in the service of the Islamic nation and the interest of the countries and peoples in the region,” Jalili, who is the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said at Beirut airport.

Cabinet agreed on Monday to form of a committee to study the development of areas in the northern Bekaa without approving any compensation to cannabis farmers.

The ministers also agreed to postpone discussions on the parliamentary electoral law to a cabinet session on Tuesday.