Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, who attended this weekend the reponing of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, briefly discussed on the sidelines of the ceremonies, the presidential impasse with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Al-Rahi told a group of journalists in Paris that Macron had expressed France's keenness to help Lebanon, including in filling its presidential void. He said that Macron had told him that "Lebanon is and will remain" in his heart.

Lebanon will form a crisis committee to search for and identify missing and forcibly disappeared persons in Syrian prisons.

Under the request of caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Cabinet Secretary-General Judge Mahmoud Makiya sent Monday a letter to the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Social Affairs asking them to urgently coordinate with the National Commission for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons in Lebanon and with the relevant authorities to identify, document, and facilitate the return of Lebanese detainees freed from Syrian prisons.

A Lebanese man who had spent 33 years in Syrian prisons arrived Monday in his hometown Chekka, after being freed by Islamist-led rebels.

Salim Hamawi is the first Lebanese prisoner to return to Lebanon, but another man, Ali al-Ali, was filmed after being freed from a prison in Hama last week.

Large numbers of Syrians fleeing their country on Monday flocked to the Masnaa border crossing with Lebanon and some of them tried to force their way into the country without going through Lebanese General Security measures, General Security said.

Representatives of the United States, France, UNIFIL and the Lebanese and Israeli armies met Monday in Naqoura to “coordinate their support for the cessation of hostilities that went into effect on November 27,” the U.S. and French embassies and UNIFIL said in a joint statement.

“As set out in the (ceasefire) announcement, UNIFIL hosted the meeting, with the United States serving as chair, assisted by France, and joined by the LAF and IDF (Lebanese and Israeli armies),” the statement said.

Across Lebanon, the Middle East, and beyond, the fall of Syria’s authoritarian government at the hands of Islamist-led rebels set off waves of jubilation, trepidation and alarm.

Many Lebanese exulted at the overthrow of the Syrian leader while others worried about more instability rocking a region in turmoil.

MP Hassan Fadlallah announced Monday that “what’s happening in Syria is a major, dangerous and new transformation,” in the first comments by a Hezbollah official on the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime at the hands of Islamist-led rebels.

U.S. President Joe Biden has reassured that the United States “will support Syria's neighbors, including Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Israel should any threat arise from Syria during this period of transition.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has congratulated all Lebanese on the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, saying that “over the past 50 years, the regime of Hafez and Bashar al-Assad was the biggest obstacle to the building of a state in Lebanon.”

The Israeli army released Monday two brothers it had detained Sunday near the Shebaa Farms.

The brothers Samer and Sameer Sinan from the town of Ain Qinya were detained as they harvested olives in al-Majidiya near the Shebaa Farms.