Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea announced Friday that Speaker Nabih Berri will call for a parliamentary session to elect a new president once a delegation he has tasked to communicate with all parties finishes its mission.

“Speaker Berri will call for an electoral session when the committee finishes its tour,” Geagea said after meeting with the three-member panel in Maarab.

The United Nations announced on Friday that it has no intentions of deploying international peacekeeping forces on the northern border with Syria, preferring instead to support the military institution's efforts.

In an interview with the pan-Arab al-Arabiya television taped in New York, U.N. Special Coordinator Derek Plumbly said security institutions will protect Lebanon by controlling the situation in the northern city of Tripoli, and arresting those accused of being behind terrorist attacks.

The joint parliamentary committees on Friday failed to finalize the discussion of the new wage scale despite a “positive atmosphere” in their meeting as the Syndicate Coordination Committee warned that it was headed for an escalation.

“The atmosphere was positive and we finalized the report and started discussions over the legal clauses in the new wage scale,” MP Ibrahim Kanaan, head of the parliamentary finance committee, told reporters after the meeting.

An Internal Security Forces member was killed in the northern city of Tripoli on Friday, in the second such attack on armed forces in two days, the state-run National News Agency reported, as the army started pursuing suspected perpetrators.

NNA said Butros al-Bayaa was in his Range Rover when armed men opened fire on him in the area of al-Qobbeh at around 5:30 am.

The March 14 General Secretariat demanded on Friday the Foreign Ministry to file a complaint against Syria with United Nations over the cross-border violations.

“As it is a balanced cabinet, we expect from the current Foreign Minister (Jebran Bassil) to comply with the President’s demand to document the cross-border violations and file a complaint with the U.N. against whoever breaches the country's sovereignty,” the general secretariat said after its regular meeting.

President Michel Suleiman urged on Friday the Lebanese Armed Forces to confront terrorists and criminals no matter how much sacrifices they make.

In a statement issued by Baabda Palace, Suleiman said: “All terrorist activities that target the members of the army and police won't stop those forces from implementing the decision of the government to preserve security and stability.”

Prime Minister Tammam Salam said Friday that partnership between the legislative and executive authorities was necessary to confront major political events.

Following talks with Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh, Salam said: “We are living in difficult circumstances … which require continuous consultations.”

The Lebanese army raided a weapons depot in the town of Aidamoun in the northern district of Akkar and arrested six Syrians in the barren mountains near Arsal.

According to the state-run National News Agency, an army unit raided on Thursday night an army depot in the town of Aidamoun in Akkar.

The interior ministry denied on Friday a report that a woman from an Arab country was arrested by “unofficial” security personnel and jailed at Rafik Hariri International Airport.

The denial came in response to an article published in pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat this week, claiming that the woman was kept for several days in a secret jail lying several stories below the ground at the facility.

Interrogations with seven National Social Security Fund (NSSF) employees charged with the embezzlement of public funds and forgery kicked off on Friday, the state-run National News Agency reported.

According to NNA, Beirut's First Investigative Judge Ghassan Owaidat began questioning the seven suspects after he received a day earlier the financial public prosecution charges along with the investigations carried out.