Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali announced on Saturday that President Bashar Assad is setting up a plan to initiate a national dialogue between all factions of the country, expressing that Syria will always be the safest place for its people.

“Syria is the only country that cares for preserving its people's dignity,” Ali said after meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Saturday that Lebanon will keep caring for Syrian refugees flowing from the neighboring war-torn country, warning that receiving support has become an urgent matter.

"Our contribution in this issue has exceeded our potential,” Miqati revealed during talks on the current developments in the Middle East that took place alongside his participation in the works of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland's Davos.

President Michel Suleiman called on Saturday for the adoption of a parliamentary electoral law that “produces diversity among all sects” in Lebanon.

He said before his visitors: “Proportional representation will achieve fair representation among these sects.”

A wanted suspect was arrested on Saturday after a brief standoff with security forces on the Beirut to Sidon highway in the Damour region, reported the National News Agency.

It said that state security forces had managed to surround the suspect, who was riding along the highway in a black Kia.

The residents of Lassa condemned on Saturday the failure to hand over the shooter in the Wata al-Joz incident over to the judiciary.

They vowed that they may take “escalatory measures” should the assailant remain at large.

Slain Roumieh prison inmate G. al-Qandaqli was killed after he uncovered the detailed scheme of some Fatah al-Islam inmates to escape the prison, the As-Safir daily reported Saturday.

An unnamed well-informed security source told the daily that Fatah al-Islam inmates strangled al-Qandaqli after he uncovered their massive prison break plan which they were about to put into action, before it was thwarted last Monday.

Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh repeated his support for the Orthodox Gathering electoral draft law, while voicing his wonder at President Michel Suleiman's rejection of it, reported al-Akhbar newspaper on Saturday.

He told the newspaper that Suleiman's rejection of the law is unjustified, noting: “He only opposed at France and Qatar's behest.”

A European summit slated for February will look into the possibility of blacklisting Hizbullah as a terrorist group on the pretext of involvement in last year's bus bombing that targeted Israeli tourists in Bulgaria, the pan Arab al-Hayat daily said Saturday.

An unnamed source, according to the daily, said that France opposes blacklisting Hizbullah as it believes “the time was not right to destabilize Lebanon.”

France is keen that the Lebanese parliamentary elections are held as scheduled in June, while lamenting the failure of the political factions to reach an agreement over a new electoral law, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Saturday.

An official French source told the daily: “French President Francois Hollande hopes that the elections will be held on time” and he will relay this message to Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat and Phalange Party chief Amin Gemayel.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat voiced his openness to the adoption of an electoral draft law that combines the winner-takes-all and proportional representation systems, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday.

He was reported as saying that he advocates the hybrid law on condition that the process of establishing a senate begin, revealing that he had informed President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati of this position.