Despite the promising atmospheres that prevailed on Monday indicating easing of differences obstructing the formation of a cabinet, Lebanese Forces MP Fadi Karam stated on Tuesday that the party still insists to be given the controversial portfolio of public works, fading hopes of a soon cabinet line-up.

In an interview to VDL (93.3) Karam unveiled an initiative to facilitate the government formation that was launched following the recent speech of Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah between the LF, Free Patriotic Movement and al-Mustaqbal Movement without disclosing the details.

DNA tests from the relatives of the abducted servicemen will be compared with DNA retrieved from several corpses found by the Syrian army in one of the areas liberated from the Islamic State group control in Syria, media reports said Tuesday.

A security source told al-Akhbar daily that DNA samples were received from the families of the servicemen, abducted by the IS in Arsal in 2014, and will be sent to Syria to be compared with unidentified bodies believed to belong to the soldiers.

An Iowa man has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to the shipping of guns to Lebanon.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says Bassem Afif Herz was given the punishment Monday in federal court in Cedar Rapids. The 31-year-old Cedar Rapids man pleaded guilty in March to conspiring to deal in firearms without a license and illegally shipping firearms. He also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and violating a federal law that limits the exporting of weapons.

The Lebanese Forces is “not concerned” with what Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh announced in Ain el-Tineh about Speaker Nabih Berri offering him the public works ministerial portfolio, LF sources announced on Monday.

The Free Patriotic Movement and the Lebanese Forces are “open to the approval of any electoral law that ensures national partnership,” an FPM delegation announced Monday after talks with LF leader Samir Geagea and other LF officials in Maarab.

The Kataeb Party on Monday called for “resolving the obstacles that are hindering the formation of the government,” noting that the new cabinet must shoulder the responsibility of “addressing citizens' affairs and preparing a new electoral law.”

A Free Patriotic Movement delegation comprising MPs Alain Aoun, Ziad Aswad and Naamtallah Abi Nasr visited the headquarters of Hizbullah's Loyalty to Resistance bloc on Monday as part of an FPM initiative aimed at pushing for the adoption of a new electoral law.

Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh announced after talks in Ain el-Tineh Monday that Speaker Nabih Berri has officially offered him the public works ministerial portfolio.

Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh escalated his rhetoric on Monday and stressed after a meeting with Patriarch al-Rahi that he is ready for a confrontation as well as for cooperation with President Michel Aoun depending on the latter's messages.

“We refuse Aoun's punishment as a way to deal with us. We are ready to stand by Aoun if he wishes to have new relations with us, but we are also ready for a confrontation is he chooses to fight,” said Franjieh after a meeting he held with al-Rahi.

Media reports said that parties are mulling calls to hold a spiritual Christian-Islamic summit with the aim of backing President Michel Aoun and the new tenure, in order to provide atmospheres appropriate for the new government to function properly, the Kuwaiti As-Seyasah daily reported Monday.