Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat is at The Hague where the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is based for possible consultations on his testimony in the trial of suspects in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's Feb. 2005 assassination, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Thursday.

The daily said Jumblat traveled to the Netherlands on Tuesday.

The Lebanese Army Command and a French delegation are seeking to reach common ground over the protocols regarding the implementation of a $3 billion arms deal under a Saudi grant.

An Nahar newspaper reported that consecutive meetings are being held to finalize the deal ahead of December 16, pointing out that the French delegation will send the agreement to Saudi and French authorities to kick off the arming process.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun has reportedly stressed that he is not concerned with the dialogue that is set to take place between al-Mustaqbal movement and Hizbullah.

Al-Akhbar newspaper quoted Aoun as saying that the talks, which are expected to be held between the rival parties this month, “do not concern him as long as he is not invited.”

Army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji expected a war of “attrition” with Syria-based terrorists, warning the military would launch more preventive strikes against them.

“Our battle with terrorism and terrorists is open-ended and we expect it to be a war of attrition,” Qahwaji said in remarks published in local dailies on Thursday.

French Foreign Ministry official Jean Francois Giraud, Head of the North Africa and Middle East Department, is expected to arrive in Lebanon next week.

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Thursday, Giraud's visit comes ahead of his visit to Iran.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq confirmed Wednesday that a woman detained in Lebanon is a divorcee of Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as he accused Hizbullah of staging a “showoff” stunt in the wake of the release of its captive fighter Imad Ayyad.

“The detained woman is a lady who has been married three times, one of them to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and they have a daughter from their marriage, the thing that has been confirmed through DNA tests,” Mashnouq said during an interview on MTV.

Lebanese judicial and military sources insisted Wednesday that a woman detained in Lebanon is a wife of Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as Iraq denied the allegations.

“DNA tests have confirmed that the Iraqi woman detained in Lebanon, Saja al-Dulaimi, is a wife of al-Baghdadi,” Turkey's Anatolia news agency quoted a Lebanese judicial source as saying.

Health Minister Wael Abou Faour slammed on Wednesday the situation at the Beirut slaughterhouse, demanding a judicial investigation in the case following the revelation that a number of its workers are suffering or passed away from diseases caused from exposure to the poor conditions at the establishment.

He said during a press conference: “Eighteen to 19 workers died of cancer due to the poor hygiene at the facility.”

The March 14 forces on Wednesday called for "activating" the UK-built military watchtowers on Lebanon's eastern border with Syria, as they voiced support for the upcoming dialogue between al-Mustaqbal movement and Hizbullah.

“The battle against terrorism is part of an international battle,” the March 14 General Secretariat said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting, noting that the government must “benefit from the global campaign by obtaining information and assets” that can help it in its anti-terror fight.

The Maronite Bishops Council condemned on Wednesday the violation of the constitution in Lebanon through the parliament's extension of its own term and failure to elect a new president.

It said in a statement after its monthly meeting: “We question how the parliament extended its term and failed to elect a president.”