The Lebanese army said Sunday it had conducted raids and arrested two Lebanese men and six Syrians as part of an investigation into the torching of a Syrian refugee camp in the norther region of Minieh.

The statement said the Lebanese men had fired weapons into the air and torched the tents.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday lashed out at those obstructing the formation of the new government and promised that he will soon resume his mediation in a bid to break the deadlock.

“I warn all those obstructing the government’s formation, be them near or far, that they bear the responsibility of putting all state institutions on the track of paralysis, one after another, because a state whose authorities are not complete and integrated would collapse in a way or another,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon.

There are no new developments expected in the cabinet formation process in the coming days, especially after Lebanon entered the holidays period, Free Patriotic Movement sources said.

“Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s initiative was aimed at securing the meeting between PM-designate Saad Hariri and President Michel Aoun,” the sources told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper in remarks published Sunday.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri left Beirut Sunday for a family visit abroad, his press office said.

Al-Jadeed television meanwhile reported that Hariri will first visit the United Arab Emirates before heading to Saudi Arabia.

More than 300 Syrian refugees were forced to flee an informal camp in northern Lebanon as a blaze raged through and burnt tents to the ground, U.N. and Lebanese officials said Sunday.

The fire late Saturday raged for four hours as firefighters tried to put it out, the Lebanese civil defense said.

A team of French investigators will come to Beirut next month to participate in interrogating former Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn, a Lebanese justice ministry official said.

The official gave no specific date or details of what information the investigators would seek from Ghosn.

The sound of an explosion was heard at dawn on Saturday at the Lebanese border, off the town of Adaisseh in Marjayoun district, when an Israeli army patrol crossed the technical fence during below the Meskav-Aam military outpost, media reports said.

Caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi said he has no right to interfere with the investigating judge, nor speak to the media about the probe into the Beirut port blast, the National News Agency reported on Saturday.

“For the sake of secrecy of investigations, I can not speak to the media about the probe into the Beirut port blast,” said Fahmi in remarks after meeting Maronite Patriarch Beshara el-Rahi where he expressed well wishes on Christmas.

The Civil Defense rescue team announced on Saturday that its members continue to carry out the tasks assigned to them at Beirut port, 145 days after the deadly explosion that ripped the capital.

The Italian authorities said they confiscated a shipment of amphetamine reportedly linked to Hizbullah, the Italian Nova agency said.