Lebanon welcomes the Russian initiative on Syria that was adopted by Arab states during Saturday’s meeting in Cairo, Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour said on Sunday, while reiterating insistence on “Lebanon’s stances concerning the previous resolutions” passed by the Arab League.

“Lebanon welcomed the Russian initiative and the points agreed on with the Russian side, reiterating its stances on the previous resolutions,” Mansour said in Beirut, after taking part in the Cairo talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Arab counterparts.

Hizbullah on Sunday claimed that “there are some March 14 associates in power who are involved in facilitating arming and infiltration into Syria,” describing the U.S. embassy in Lebanon as “a military operations room against Syria.”

“The countries that conspired against Syria have admitted that they had engaged in an uncalculated adventure and nowadays we’re noticing how they have started tactical, political retreats,” Sheikh Nabil Qaouq, deputy head of Hizbullah’s Executive Council, said.

The Lebanese army contained an armed clash between rival clans in the eastern city of Baalbek on Sunday to prevent the confrontation from spiraling out of control.

The National News Agency and Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) said a military unit contained the clash between the Jaafar and Shamas clans that included the use of light weapons and rocket propelled grenades.

Hizbullah praised on Sunday the demonstrations held against Bahraini authorities, saying Manama had no choice but to respond to the rightful demands of the people.

“The popular demonstrations taking place in Bahrain proved … that those engaged in an uprising for freedom and a fair political system in their country … are the majority of the Bahraini people,” Hizbullah said in a statement.

Phalange party leader Amin Gemayel said Lebanon’s Christians have concerns over their existence in the region following a sharp drop in their numbers in Iraq and Syria and attacks on Copts in Egypt.

In an interview published in An Nahar daily on Sunday, Gemayel said that Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s concerns over the Christians in the East are not new.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati has been involved in intense discussions with his team to prepare a draft-law that will seek to legalize the 2006-2010 extra-budgetary spending that has stirred controversy and retorts between the March 8 and 14 forces.

The cabinet tasked Miqati with referring the draft-law to the government during its next session at Baabda palace next Wednesday although it wasn’t mentioned in the agenda which was distributed to ministers on Saturday.

Security forces have raided a house near the coastal town of Jbeil in the search for the killer of two men whose bodies were found in a rented vehicle on the Tabarja highway, Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) reported Sunday.

The station said that the policemen raided the home of a man which it identified with his initials as J.K. VDL said however that the suspect hasn’t been found yet.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel and the Phalange and National Liberal parties exchanged accusations on Sunday on the side that triggered a clash between student demonstrators and the security forces during a protest against a new history curriculum.

Charbel, who is currently in Tunisia at the head of a delegation representing Lebanon at the meeting of Arab interior ministers, told An Nahar daily that the clash broke out on Saturday when some demonstrators sought to allow a vehicle with a loudspeaker to go beyond the area specified for the protest.

The Lebanese judicial authorities released 9 armed Syrians, who had fled into the eastern Bekaa area, Agence France Presse reported on Saturday.

“The Military court ordered the release of 9 detained armed Syrian men this week after they entered Lebanon illegally,” a ministerial source told AFP.

An 18-year old teenager who claimed that he was abducted in the Baalbek village of Brital confessed that he planned his kidnapping with two other accomplices in order to split the ransom, the National News Agency reported.

The two partners demanded the teenager’s parents to pay a $100,000 ransom to win his release.