Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has said that the ruling "establishment" in Lebanon is still entrenched and coherent.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has called for parliament to convene on January 9 to elect a president, in an attempt to break a gridlock of over two years and reactivate the country's crippled state institutions.

The session will be open with successive rounds. "We might hold several rounds in the same session, what's important is for parliament to elect a president and for MPs to shoulder their responsibilities," Berri told An-Nahar newspaper, in remarks published Monday.

The Lebanese Civil Defense has been handed over at the Masnaa border crossing the bodies of two Lebanese men who were shot dead in Syria's Homs in addition to a wounded Lebanese national.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has said that he will be "decisive" in the January 9 presidential election session.

Lebanese security forces have apprehended an armed group in the northern city of Tripoli that kidnapped a group of 26 Syrians who were recently smuggled into Lebanon, two Lebanese security officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information with the media.

The Syrians included five women and seven children, and security officials are working to return them to Syria.

An Egyptian activist wanted by Cairo on charges of incitement to violence and terrorism, Abdulrahman al-Qardawi, was detained by Lebanese security forces after crossing the porous border from Syria, according to two judicial and one security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to to talk to the press.

Al-Qardawi is an Egyptian activist residing in Turkey and an outspoken critic of Egypt's government.

Syria's embassy in Lebanon suspended consular services Saturday, a day after two relatives of deposed Syrian President Bashar Assad were arrested at the Beirut airport with allegedly forged passports.

Also on Saturday, Lebanese authorities handed over dozens of Syrians — including former officers in the Syrian army under Assad — to the new Syrian authorities after they were caught illegally entering Lebanon, a war monitor and Lebanese officials said.

The wife and daughter of one of deposed Syrian president Bashar Assad's cousins were arrested Friday at the Beirut airport, where they attempted to fly out with allegedly forged passports, Lebanese judicial and security officials said. Assad's uncle departed the day before.

Rasha Khazem, the wife of Duraid Assad — the son of former Syrian Vice President Rifaat Assad, the uncle of Bashar Assad — and their daughter, Shams, were smuggled illegally into Lebanon and were trying to fly to Egypt when they were arrested, according to five Lebanese officials familiar with the case. They were being detained by Lebanese General Security. Rifaat had flown out the day before on his real passport and was not stopped, the officials said.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has called for a parliamentary session to elect a president on January 9. The session will be open with successive rounds until a president is elected, Saudi news channel Al-Hadath said.

The Saudi channel said sources quoted Berri as saying that the Quint - which comprises the U.S., France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt - has supported Lebanon to elect a president. "Now we have to carry out our duties."

The co-chair of the five-party ceasefire monitoring committee, U.S. general Jasper Jeffers, has received a phone call from caretaker PM Najib Mikati, who protested against Thursday's Israeli incursion into Wadi al-Hujeir, Qantara and Adsheet al-Qusayr, a prominent political source said.