Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea indirectly admitted that the March 14 forces had committed a mistake by agreeing to maintaining Speaker Nabih Berri in his position after the camp won a majority in the 2009 parliamentary elections, reported al-Akhbar newspaper on Thursday.

He told the daily: “With all due respect to Berri, we can no longer tolerate him as parliament speaker. We must form a harmonious government just as the other camp did.”

The Syndicate Coordination Committee will go ahead with its nationwide strike on Thursday after crunch talks at the cabinet failed to reach consensus over finding the appropriate resources for funding the new wages scale for public employees.

Head of Public Secondary School Education Teachers Association Hanna Gharib told Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) that the SCC granted the government several chances to refer the new salaries scale to the parliament, but it “failed to meet its promises.”

Residents of Arsal, a Sunni Muslim town of 40,000, say they have strong motives to help those trying to topple Syria's regime: they themselves were harassed and abused by it during three decades of de facto Syrian control of Lebanon.

But in siding with the rebels, many of them fellow Sunnis, Arsal is also deepening rifts with its Shiite Muslim neighbors in the Bekaa Valley that runs along Lebanon's eastern border with Syria. Large areas of the scenic valley are controlled by Hizbullah that is supporting and — according to the U.S. and the Syrian opposition — also fighting alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.

Cross-border clashes broke out late Wednesday on the restive Lebanese-Syrian frontier, a Lebanese security official told Agence France Presse, adding that there were no casualties.

"The Syrian army fired shells into Lebanon after unidentified armed men opened fire across the border near the village of Aboudiyeh" in northern Lebanon, the official said.

The cabinet on Wednesday again failed to reach a final agreement on the sources of funding for the new wage scale adopted in early September, postponing discussions to an October 31 session, as the Syndicate Coordination Committee declared that it will press on with its general strike scheduled for Thursday.

In line with Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi's proposal on funding the new scale, cabinet members agreed in principle to raise the VAT on imported vehicles from 10% to 15% and to increase taxes on alcohol, tobacco, bank interests, stamps and construction licenses. However, the decision was not officially adopted due to lack of consensus on all the sources of funding.

Saudi Arabia will grant visas to Syrians wishing to perform the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, set to begin next week, the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon said on Wednesday.

Riyadh, a bastion of Sunni Islam, has been one of the staunchest supporters of the revolt against Syria's President Bashar Assad. The majority of Syria's population is Sunni, while the regime is dominated by Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi said on Wednesday that Arab Spring demonstrations are legal means for people to demand their political, social and economical rights, but these protests were hijacked and turned into violent conflicts.

In a speech he gave during the General Bishops Synod in Rome, al-Rahi explained that “some countries took advantage of ongoing protests and supported one side or another with money and arms, encouraging violence and triggering wars in these nations”.

There are near daily clashes in Syria close to the Lebanese border between rebels and fighters loyal to Hizbullah, Agence France Presse quoted local residents as saying on Wednesday.

Activists have long accused Hizbullah, a long-time recipient of support from Syria, of joining the fight to crush the 19-month insurgency against the regime of President Bashar Assad.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati hoped on Wednesday that visiting United Nations and Arab League envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi would succeed in his mission to end the crisis in the neighboring country.

He told the envoy that Lebanon supports his mission “to end the killing and destruction in Syria.”

The March 14 General Secretariat lashed out on Wednesday at Hizbullah's Iranian-made drone that penetrated Israeli airspace, accusing the party of luring an Israeli aggression on Lebanon.

“The incident has negative impacts on the Lebanese, who became a victim to the conflict in the region and a shield to Iran in particular,” it said in a statement after its weekly meeting.