The Internal Security Forces on Wednesday arrested a Syrian man who had been purchasing weapons in Lebanon with the aim of smuggling them into Syria, which he intended to enter via Shebaa's mountains.

“A patrol from the Marjeyoun bureau apprehended the Syrian A. Kh. on charges of conducting suspicious activities in the Hasbaya region,” state-run National News Agency reported.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Wednesday noted that “the most important barter that might occur to secure the release of the captive troops would be Hizbullah's pullout from Syria,” while stressing that “the responsibility for defending Lebanon falls exclusively on the state's shoulders.”

In a statement issued after its weekly meeting, the bloc also condemned “the recurrent Israeli violations and attacks against southern Lebanon,” describing them as “a blatant violation of the U.N. Security Council Resolution (1701) and Lebanese sovereignty.”

Tenants of old rent law buildings on Wednesday renewed their rejection of the new rent law that has been recently passed by parliament, vowing that they will stay in their homes and demanding amendments to what they described as the “black law.”

“This black law will not pass except over our dead bodies. This is a displacement law,” tenants' spokesman Castro Abdullah said at a sit-in in Hamra Street in Beirut, which was briefly blocked by the protesters.

With its recent attack on Israeli troops, Hizbullah may be trying to prove it can fight on two fronts at once -- against both its traditional enemy and Syrian rebels.

But experts say there is little risk of that escalating into a full-blown conflict with Israel.

Four gunmen on Wednesday kidnapped a Lebanese man in Arsal and took him to the outskirts of the northeastern border town, where Syria-based armed groups have a heavy presence.

“Four armed men abducted the citizen Toufiq Wehbe in Arsal and took him to the outskirts,” state-run National News Agency reported.

The March 14 forces on Wednesday condemned “the attempt by terrorist factions coming from Syria to enter Lebanon,” saying they should be confronted by the Lebanese army, while accusing the Free Patriotic Movement of “supporting militias” instead of state institutions.

In a statement issued after its weekly meeting, the March 14 General Secretariat said it deplores “the attempt by terrorist factions coming from Syria to enter Lebanon through the northern Bekaa region and it considers it a blatant violation of national sovereignty.”

Speaker Nabih Berri refused on Wednesday staging of parliamentary elections, if it was boycotted by a key party.

“I support the staging of parliamentary elections but reject carrying it out if a key party boycotted it,” Berri said during his weekly meeting with lawmakers at Ain el-Tineh.

Families of troops and police abducted in August from the border town of Arsal reopened the vital Dahr al-Baydar road on Wednesday following days of protests, moving their sit-in to downtown Beirut where they blocked the busy Banks Street.

Their moves aim to pressure the government to exert more efforts to secure the release of their loved ones.

British Ambassador to Lebanon Fletcher stressed his country's determination to help Lebanon combat terrorism, expressing fear over the “grave dangers” facing the country.

The United Kingdom will “expand its support to Lebanon's resilience,” Fletcher told reporters after meeting with Prime Minister Tammam Salam at the Grand Serail.

Mustaqbal Movement leader MP Saad Hariri condemned on Wednesday the silence over the recent clashes in the Bekaa region of Brital and the bombing of an Israeli patrol in the Shebaa Farms, wondering whether the “Lebanese people should turn a blind eye to Hizbullah's actions.”

He said in a statement that the party's “insistence to adopt such choices, whether they are arbitrary or serve foreign agendas, not only hinder national efforts to combat terrorism and extremism, but they raise questions over the violations of issues that enjoy national consensus.”