Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat renewed his call on rival Lebanese parties to unite to confront the danger of terrorists and salvage Lebanon.

Jumblat said that he agreed with Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah during their meeting last month that the Islamic State's threat to the region puts Lebanon in danger.

Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that it was up to Christian leaders to agree to resolve the presidential deadlock, saying 87% of Muslim lawmakers were attending parliamentary sessions.

Berri denied that holding the presidential elections needed a Sunni-Shiite dialogue, saying “the problem is not with Muslims.”

Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun underwent a “small surgery” after fracturing his arm, his press office announced on Sunday.

“He is doing fine,” it said in a terse statement without giving further details.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has suggested to bring together Lebanon's top Christian political leaders in Rome but his proposal was rejected, An Nahar newspaper reported on Thursday.

Al-Rahi wanted to put the officials under “moral pressure to convince them to agree on a candidate for the presidency and agree on holding the elections,” the daily said.

Speaker Nabih Berri has said that his rejection to extend parliament's term should be used as a “pressure card” to speed up the election of a new president.

Local dailies on Wednesday quoted Berri as saying that the vacuum at Baabda Palace would remain if the legislature's term was extended for the second time.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam expressed hope that the political arch-foes would reach a breakthrough regarding the political crises in the country, noting that it's the only way to resolve the controversial new pay hike for public employees.

“The solution lies in the agreement between the political powers to activate the work of the state,” Salam told An Nahar newspaper published on Wednesday.

Speaker Nabih Berri rejected any negotiation with the jihadists who took more than 35 soldiers and policemen captive in the northeastern town of Arsal last week.

In remarks to As Safir newspaper published on Monday, Berri said: “Had Prime Minister Tammam Salam asked for my advice, I would have told him to resort to Qatar and Turkey to resolve this issue.”

Lebanese Force leader Samir Geagea rejected any armed presence for Syrians on Lebanese territories, considering that the situation in the northeastern town of Arsal will deteriorate as long as the conflict in neighboring country Syria is ongoing and Hizbullah is engaged in the war.

Geagea wondered in an interview with Free Lebanon radio why the army doesn't prevent Hizbullah fighters from entering Syria.

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji expressed gratitude on Thursday for the support that Saudi Arabia offers to Lebanon and in particular the military, considering it to be the main reason behind “thwarting conspiracy schemes and maintaining stability in Lebanon.”

“The generous aid (for the Lebanese army) came at the appropriate time,” Qahwaji said in an interview with the Saudi newspaper Okaz.

Senior officials held a meeting at the residence of former President Michel Suleiman in Yarze, the state-run National News Agency reported on Wednesday.

The meeting, which was held on Tuesday evening, gathered Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, Prime Minister Tammam Salam, head of al-Mustaqbal Parliamentary bloc Fouad Saniora and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat.