The tumult following the kidnapping of 11 Lebanese pilgrims in Syria last month pushed the abductors to raise their ransom from $300,000 to $4 million, a Syrian opposition leader based in Paris said.

The leader, who refused to be identified, told As Safir daily published on Tuesday that the kidnappers first asked Hizbullah and the families of the 11 men for a $300,000 ransom.

President Michel Suleiman, former Premier Saad Hariri, Transportation and Public Works Minister Ghazi al-Aridi, and Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awadh Asiri denied LBC’s report on Monday on their meeting with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh held earlier in June, reported al-Mustaqbal daily on Tuesday.

Suleiman adamantly denied to the daily the report, wondering: “I know what I have said … Is it possible for the president of Lebanon to request Saudi mediation with Israel on any matter?”

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has admitted that he conspired with Syria and Iran against a Qatari-Turkish initiative, forcing the collapse of ex-Premier Saad Hariri’s government in early 2011, media reports said Tuesday.

“I carried out the coup along with Premier (Najib) Miqati,” Jumblat told 16 leaders meeting at Baabda palace under President Michel Suleiman at the national dialogue session. “We conspired with Syria and Iran against the Qatari-Turkish initiative.”

Hizbullah MP Mohammed Raad and al-Mustaqbal bloc leader Fouad Saniora exchanged accusations on the spread and smuggling of arms during the national dialogue session held at Baabda palace on Monday, media reports said.

In his statement, Saniora blamed Hizbullah’s arsenal for the spread of arms in Lebanese cities and towns. “The resistance’s arms led to the proliferation of other weapons,” he said during the four-hour meeting that was chaired by President Michel Suleiman.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday voiced his satisfaction with the national dialogue session held earlier in the day at the presidential palace, noting that “from now on, every person will be held responsible for obstructing the implementation of the principles,” in reference to the Declaration of Principles agreed by the members of the national dialogue committee.

In an interview on his movement’s mouthpiece OTV, Aoun said a “major responsibility” falls on the Lebanese leaders to ensure the implementation of the endorsed resolutions.

The Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) on Monday broadcasted leaked minutes of the Riyadh meeting between President Michel Suleiman and Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.

LBC said that Suleiman asked Abdullah to put pressure on March 14 forces to participate in national dialogue.

Lebanese citizen Suleiman al-Ahmed, who hails from Wadi Khaled, will be released on Tuesday and handed over to the Higher Lebanese-Syrian Council, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.

The Phalange Party hailed on Monday the resumption of the national dialogue, hoping that the “reconciliatory atmosphere it created will have a positive effect on the tense situation on the ground.”

It hoped in a statement after its weekly politburo statement that the dialogue would be “employed in achieving a reconciliatory atmosphere with the state through recognizing its authority in the political, security, and military fields.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat said on Monday that igniting the north front and dragging the country into strife is the only alternative to dialogue “which certain political powers oddly refuse to participate in.”

In his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine, Jumblat expressed his concern over the security events erupting in the northern city of Tripoli, specifically the tit-for-tat abductions that took place Sunday night between Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen rival neighborhoods.

The United States welcomed on Monday all efforts exerted by Lebanese leaders to strengthen the national unity and stability in the country.

“We encourage the participants in the national dialogue to engage constructively,” the U.S. embassy said via twitter.