Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi will carry out contacts with Lebanese foes to convince them to adopt the Orthodox Gathering proposal, which was reached by Christian political parties.

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Monday, the negotiations will be in coordination with President Michel Suleiman.

Lebanon's top Christian parties from both the majority and opposition camps confirmed on Monday their support for the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal, a move that is likely to put them at loggerheads with the opposition’s al-Mustaqbal movement on an electoral draft-law.

In remarks to As Safir daily, Phalange party leader Amin Gemayel, who is a Christian leader in the opposition March 14 alliance, said: “We care for achieving the right representation for Christians.”

The Senior Adviser to the Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Arshad Hurmuzlu, stressed on Monday that the case of the kidnapped Lebanese pilgrims in Syria is a local affair, pointing out that efforts are ongoing to free the men.

“It is wrong to deal with the case on the basis that it's a Lebanese-Turkish affair,” Hurmuzlu told An Nahar newspaper.

The spokesman of al-Meqdad clan's military wing, Maher al-Meqdad, denied on Monday that he knows the reasons behind his arrest in September.

He pointed out in comments published in An Nahar newspaper that the clan had handed over to General Security Chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim the Turkish hostage without imposing any conditions.

Speaker Nabih Berri shied away on Monday from revealing what steps he would take if a parliamentary subcommittee failed to agree on common ground on an electoral draft-law.

In remarks to local newspapers, Berri said he will study the minutes of the meetings of the subcommittee which is scheduled to convene on Monday afternoon.

Hizbullah on Sunday stressed that the upcoming parliamentary elections will not affect the so-called "resistance-army-people equation" regardless of who wins the vote.

"The electoral juncture is a chance for rapprochement and agreement on a new electoral law, as the 1960 law now belongs to the past,” deputy head of Hizbullah's Executive Council, Sheikh Nabil Qaouq, said.

Change and Reform bloc MP Alain Aoun confirmed on Sunday that he would participate in the meeting of an electoral parliamentary subcommittee the next day.

“Hadn't I withdrawn from the meetings, the minutes wouldn't have been finalized,” he said.

Lebanon appealed on Sunday for $180 million from Arab countries to help it meet the Syrian refugee influx that has threatened to bring the number of the displaced to 420,000 in June, as the Arab League decided to send a team to Syria's neighboring countries to assess the status of refugees ahead of a donor conference in Kuwait on January 30.

Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo to discuss the Syrian refugee crisis agreed to send a team to Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq "to assess the situation of Syrian refugees on the ground," the Arab League said.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi called for free politicians who would take bold decisions against hegemony and urged the state to take preventive measures before the influx of refugees from Syria becomes a “timebomb.”

“We need free officials … capable of taking bold and courageous decisions that stand up against hegemony and injustice, and of exerting every effort for the public good,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday sermon.

A Lebanese military expert defused on Sunday three hand grenades found in the area of al-Mina in the northern city of Tripoli, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said the grenades were discovered in the area of Borj al-Sibaa.