Interior Minister Marwan Charbel revealed on Friday that he is ready to run for the presidency after the tenure of President Michel Suleiman ends in 2014, pointing out that the upcoming parliamentary elections can be held only if the political foes reach consensus over the electoral law.

I will become the next president “if I was asked, and they agreed on my candidacy... But I refuse to be a president who has no decision,” Charbel said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

An exchange of gunfire erupted on Thursday evening in Sidon between members of the Popular Nasserite Organization led by ex-MP Osama Saad and the Hizbullah-affiliated Resistance Brigades, leaving one person dead and three others wounded.

Future TV said “fierce clashes erupted in the Nazlet Sidon area between a group belonging to the Popular Nasserite Organization and another belonging to 'Hizbullah's brigades'.”

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Thursday announced that it will not return to the national dialogue table before the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Miqati's government, calling for a “regional-international conference” that would help Lebanon cope with the influx of refugees from war-torn Syria.

“There is no alternative to dialogue ... but dialogue must be productive and beneficial for the Lebanese, not a media event that Hizbullah would use as a cover to carry on with its scheme that aims to militarily control the state and the country and its institutions,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun said on Thursday that the Bkirki meetings that were held between Christian leaders to reach an agreement over a new parliamentary electoral law found that the Orthodox Gathering law offers the best representation, followed by the law based on proportional representation.

He said: “I am ready to accept any electoral law on condition that the president's privileges be restored to what they were before the Taif Accord.”

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel indirectly criticized on Thursday Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's recent call on the government to hold negotiations with the kidnappers of Lebanese pilgrims held in Syria's Aazaz region.

He said ahead of a cabinet session at the Baabda Palace: “The state is holding direct negotiations with the abductors.”

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah rejected on Thursday a suggestion that the Lebanese-Syrian border be closed due to the state's inability to support the burden of refugees pouring in from the war-torn country.

He said during a televised speech marking 40 days after Ashura: “The border with Syria should not be shut and the refugees, regardless if they support or oppose the Syrian regime, should be hosted in Lebanon.”

Head of the electoral subcommittee aimed at tackling the parliamentary electoral law MP Robert Ghamen hoped on Thursday that an agreement would be reached with all of its members over a new law, reported the National News Agency.

He said: “We hope that all concerned sides would reach a common ground on the draft law during Tuesday's meeting.”

Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn said Thursday that the Lebanese army and security forces will not tolerate any attempt to employ the current circumstances in the region against internal stability.

“Security agencies and mainly the Lebanese army are on alert” over the challenges that Lebanon is facing from the influx of refugees escaping the fighting between government troops and rebels in Syria, Ghosn said.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi criticized on Thursday the political authority in Lebanon for failing to approve a new parliamentary electoral law, reported the National News Agency.

He said before a delegation from the Bekaa city of Zahleh: “It is shameful that the politicians have been incapable of reaching an agreement over a new law.”

A military examining magistrate indicted on Thursday seven men on terrorism charges that could result in the death penalty for their links to the assassination of a former Hizbullah official in 2004.

Judge Imad al-Zain issued his indictment that called for sentencing four Lebanese and one Egyptian to death along with two other people who are on the run.