BREAKING NEWS

Lebanon rules out political deal with militants

BEIRUT - The Lebanese government said on Monday there would be no political deal with Sunni militants who attacked the border town of Arsal at the weekend in the worst spillover from Syria's three-year-old civil war.
"There are no political solutions with (the extremists) who are tampering with Arab societies under oppressive, alien religious slogans," Prime Minister Tammam Salam said in a televised statement read at the end of a cabinet meeting.
Salam, the most senior Sunni figure in the Lebanese government, said the only solution was for the militants to withdraw from Arsal. The government had decided to mobilize all state institutions to defend the country, Salam - flanked by the entire cabinet - added.