Lebanon’s Central Security Council held an extraordinary meeting on Friday in order to tackle measures to prevent the blocking of the airport road in compliance with a cabinet decision following its session on Thursday.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel, who headed the meeting, said that the gatherers agreed to task the army and security forces with preventing the closure of the road, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel stressed on Saturday that Turkish officials are keen to resolve the case of the abducted Lebanese pilgrims in Syria.

“We agreed on continuing the mutual efforts in another meeting, scheduled to be held soon, to follow up the case,” Charbel’s press office said in a statement.

President Michel Suleiman hoped on Friday that no Syrian officials are linked to the attacks that were being planned in Lebanon by former minister Michel Samaha, reported As Safire newspaper on Saturday.

“I enjoy good ties with Syrian President Bashara Assad. I have nothing to hide. What I am most concerned about is the discovery of explodes in Samaha’s possession,” he said in response to being asked if the Syrian president had contacted him after the former minister’s arrest.

Dar al-Fatwa, Lebanon’s highest Sunni Muslim religious authority, on Friday announced that Sunday, August 19 will be the first day of Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Dar al-Fatwa said the crescent moon which marks the new lunar month was not sighted on Friday night and that Saturday would as a result be considered the 30th and final day of the dawn-to-dusk month of fasting.

Turkey advised its nationals on Friday to avoid non-essential travel to Lebanon after mass kidnappings which included two Turkish citizens, the foreign ministry said.

"It is deemed beneficial if our citizens avoid traveling to Lebanon unless absolutely necessary," said the ministry in a statement.

The U.S. Embassy in Beirut on Friday again warned its citizens of “an increased possibility of attacks” against them in Lebanon and announced the suspension of the Fulbright and English Language Fellow programs.

“The U.S. Embassy has received reports of an increased possibility of attacks against U.S. citizens in Lebanon. Possible threats include kidnapping, the potential for an upsurge in violence, the escalation of family or neighborhood disputes, as well as U.S. citizens being the target of terrorist attacks in Lebanon,” the embassy said in a statement.

Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday noted that “what happened in the past two days was out of Hizbullah and AMAL’s control,” warning that his group would make lives of Israelis "a living hell" if Lebanon is attacked.

“It’s untrue that Hassan al-Meqdad is a Hizbullah member,” Nasrallah said of a Lebanese man abducted near Damascus on Tuesday by a Syrian armed group which claimed that he is a Hizbullah sniper.

Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Friday held talks in Ain al-Tineh on the current situations and developments.

The meeting comes after Berri’s absence from the national dialogue session on Thursday. Berri’s office said in a statement that he would not attend the session over its “location and the circumstances” that accompanied the holding of the all-party talks.

The head of the Independence Movement Michel Mouawad noted on Thursday that the latest developments in Lebanon are aimed at imposing Lebanon under the rule of Hizbullah’s arms and changing its identity by force.

He added during an Independence Movement iftar: “We reject the employment of Zgharta’s name in defending the criminal Syrian regime.”

Al-Meqdad clan on Friday announced that its military wing had kidnapped Abdullah al-Homsi, a spokesman for the so-called Syrian Revolution Coordination Committees, noting that it has formed a committee tasked with following up on the case of clan member Hassan al-Meqdad, who was abducted near Damascus on Tuesday.

The clan said Wednesday it kidnapped more than 20 Syrians and a Turkish national to try to secure Hassan’s release. The alleged Syrian rebel group that abducted Hassan had claimed that he is a Hizbullah sniper, but both Hizbullah and the clan have denied the claims.