Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday announced that he will take part in national dialogue only if it will tackle the thorny issue of the electoral law.

“We want the electoral law to come first and we would discuss the government after that. The government is not as important as the constitutional junctures that have certain deadlines,” said Aoun after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform bloc in Rabiyeh.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea noted on Monday that the March 8 camp's stint in government over the past two years demonstrated that it does not seek Lebanon's interests.

He therefore suggested during a press conference the formation of a technocrat government comprised of March 14 officials and centrists.

Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan announced on Sunday that his party will participate in the national dialogue sessions through which agreements over an electoral law and the formation of a new cabinet could be reached.

"(LF leader) Samir Geagea will personally participate at the dialogue session,” Adwan revealed in an interview on al-Jadeed television.

A rumor about the death of Syrian President Bashar Assad was massively shared on social media websites on Sunday, the French weekly magazine Le Point reported.

"News about Assad being shot dead by his Iranian bodyguard have not been confirmed yet,” the magazine said, revealing that the opposition's Free Syrian Army has denied such reports.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton voiced concern Saturday over the "deteriorating situation" in Lebanon following the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Miqati the previous day.

A statement issued by her office said Ashton "expresses concern at the deteriorating situation in Lebanon" after Miqati's decision to step down.

Syria's embattled President Bashar Assad paid an unexpected visit to an educational center in the capital Damascus on Wednesday, the presidency said on its official Facebook page.

"President Assad made a surprise visit to the Educational Center for Fine Arts where the education ministry was honoring the families of students who were martyred as a result of terrorist acts, to honor the parents himself," the presidency wrote, alongside photos of Assad at the center.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun rejected on Tuesday any possible alternative to the Orthodox Gathering parliamentary electoral law, saying that the rights of Christians in Lebanon are being usurped.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc's weekly meeting: “I was not informed of any of the discussions that were held in Rome.”

Damascus on Tuesday denied that its warplanes had bombed areas on the Lebanese-Syrian border, accusing “hostile” countries of circulating the media reports.

“The reports circulated by some Lebanese, Arab and international media outlets about Syrian warplanes dropping bombs inside Lebanese territory are false and baseless,” Syria's state news agency SANA quoted an unnamed foreign ministry official as saying.

Israeli aircraft on Monday released scarlet heat balloons over Lebanon's regional waters, in the first such violation in around a year.

"Israeli warplanes dropped more than 30 scarlet heat balloons between Naqoura and Tyre within two hours," state-run National News Agency reported.

The Phalange Party called on Monday for "laying out a military plan to contain unrest-prone areas”, urging the cabinet to reach out to the international community to respond to Syria's threats of bombing Lebanese territories.

"We demand laying out a military plan to contain unrest-prone areas, imposing security and preventing the appearance of gunmen,” the party said in a released statement after the political bureau's weekly meetings, condemning Sunday's attacks on Sunni clerics.