Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea described the current situation in Lebanon as a “disaster,” reiterating his call for the formation of a so-called neutral government.

“This is a disaster for the Lebanese people, who are dying everyday on the roads while seeking their livelihoods amid the difficulties that the economy is confronting and bad living and security conditions,” Geagea told An Nahar newspaper.

Shells fired from Syria rained down Tuesday evening on several border towns in the Akkar district, damaging some houses, as gunshots targeted a highway inside Lebanon.

“Shells landed in the outskirts of the towns of al-Noura, Qashlaq and Amar al-Baikat during clashes on the Syrian side of the border,” Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

Unknown assailants on Tuesday fired gunshots at a resident of the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood in the northern city of Tripoli.

"Ghazi Abbas Mahmoud was wounded by gunshots in front of Tripoli's Shahine Hospital where he works,” LBCI television said.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday reiterated that the formation of a so-called “de facto cabinet” would violate the 1943 National Pact, an unwritten agreement that laid the foundation of Lebanon as a multi-confessional state.

“What's dangerous in the cabinet formation process is that it is based on incomplete consultations that excluded the biggest Christian parliamentary bloc,” Aoun said in a written statement he recited after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc.

President Michel Suleiman hoped that he will be able to end his term as president in spring and hand over power to a new president, he told the General Security magazine in an interview published by the National News Agency on Tuesday.

He added: “Forcing a lack of quorum at parliament in order to obstruct the presidential elections is undemocratic.”

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati lamented on Tuesday that any agreement on the formation of the new government would not be a radical solution to the country's crises.

“The situation in Lebanon has become largely intertwined with the complications of the situation in Syria,” Miqati said as he met Arab ambassadors based in Germany.

A military examining magistrate issued on Tuesday an arrest warrant against Sheikh Omar al-Atrash for carrying out terrorist activities, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said Judge Nabil Wehbe questioned al-Atrash over his role in transporting suicide bombers to Lebanon.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon continued on Tuesday hearing the testimonies of various witnesses linked to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005.

It listened to the testimony of Brigadier General Asaad Nohra who is an officer at the Internal Security Forces.

Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel confirmed on Tuesday reports concerning the sighting of a suspicious drone over the residence of Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea in Maarab.

“The matter is not a joke... It's serious according to reports and it was seen with naked eye,” Charbel said in comments to Free Lebanon radio.

An Israeli bulldozer crossed on Tuesday the technical fence off the southern town of Rmeish under the protection of a military unit, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The bulldozer was to carry out scraping activities near the U.N.-drawn Blue Line, NNA said.