Lebanon will host this month a U.N. conference on democracy in the Arab world, with a slew of high-level dignitaries, including U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, due to attend, organizers and Lebanese officials said Tuesday.

The two-day conference entitled "Reform and Transitions to Democracy" will be held January 15 and 16. It is organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stated on Tuesday that history has proven that popular movements cannot slow down, but they only gain momentum.

He said citing late Czechoslovakian President Vaclav Havel: “If only Russia and Iran would consider the ‘power of the powerless’ in their approach towards the Syrian crisis.”

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon will visit Lebanon next week to meet with officials as well as members of the U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in the south of the country, a government official told Agence France Presse.

The official said Ban's three-day trip would start on January 13.

The Shura Council rejected on Tuesday the last cabinet decision on the wage hike after holding a meeting with Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas, who had proposed the salary boost.

The meeting was held between Nahhas and members of the Council, including its head Judge Shukri Sader.

Speaker Nabih Berri said Tuesday that an approval of the decrees on the implementation of the oil exploration law will be the culmination of the government’s achievements.

In remarks to An Nahar daily, Berri said that the approval expected to be made by the cabinet on Wednesday will be “a vital achievement and the energy ministry will implement its mission … to open the door for (the operations of oil exploration) companies.”

Premier Najib Miqati held talks on Tuesday with the head of the Civil Service Council, Khaled Qabbani, on the appointment of top civil servants, which had faced the obstacle of lack of political consensus among the major parties.

Qabbani stated after the meeting: “The mechanism that was approved by cabinet will determine the appointments of top civil servants.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Monday denied a media report claiming he was unconvinced with the wage hike decree proposed by Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas, who was nominated by him for the ministerial post.

“Every now and then, some media reports attribute stances to him (Aoun) or to FPM sources and they (media outlets) claim to read his intentions in order to come up with the conclusions they see fit,” Aoun’s press office said in a statement.

Lebanese businessman Nadi Rayyes died in the Ivory Coast on Monday after a private jet he was on board crashed due to poor weather conditions as it was flying from a coastal region to the capital Abidjan.

Lebanon’s Ambassador to the Ivory Coast Ali Ajami stated that the Rayyes owns two publications in Abidjan.

President Michel Suleiman praised the United Arab Emirates for embracing the Lebanese community there, the Emirates News Agency reported on Monday.

WAM quoted Suleiman as hailing the country for “embracing the largest Lebanese community that lives in a tolerant and diverse community and contributes through the expertise of its citizens and their capabilities to the development process of the UAE.”

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stressed on Monday the need to establish a democratic civil state in Lebanon that respects all values and stands as an example for the East.

He said before a Hizbullah delegation in Jbeil: “The state must separate between religion and politics … but not separate politics from God.”