The General Labor Confederation’s executive council will meet on Friday to decide on the measures that will be taken to overturn the cabinet’s approval of a wage boost.

“The cabinet’s decision was more unfair than the previous one,” head of the GLC Ghassan Ghosn told As Safir newspaper about a decision reached by the government in mid-October that was turned down by the Shura Council for being unfair.

Speaker Nabih Berri and U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, who was on a two-day official visit to Beirut, have reportedly disagreed on the situation in Syria as the top diplomat sought to garner Lebanese support against the Assad regime.

Sources close to Berri told An Nahar daily published Friday that the Syrian crisis was at the helm of Feltman’s discussions with Lebanese officials.

Hizbullah’s education office slammed the cabinet’s wage boost decree as it voiced its support to the Syndicate Coordination Committee call for strike.

“The cabinet’s (wage hike decree) is offensive and unfair and doesn’t reflect any seriousness in dealing with the issue,” Hizbullah’s education office said in a statement on Thursday.

Sources close to Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat have said that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman encouraged the PSP chief on his call for National Dialogue to resolve controversial issues.

Feltman met with Jumblat in Clemenceau on Thursday. The PSP’s press office said the Druze chief stressed the importance of dialogue as the only way to resolve differences and end the current crisis.

Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas on Thursday said that the cabinet’s rejection on Wednesday of his wage increase plan was “purely political,” describing the Change and Reform bloc’s partners in the government as “an octopus seeking … to defend its personal interests.”

“Yesterday’s decision to reject our plan was purely political because it sided with the approach of counting on outside forces and appeasing certain parties and ambassadors,” Nahhas told OTV.

Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan, accompanied by a religious Druze delegation, on Thursday held talks in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Addressing the Lebanese delegation, Assad said that “Syria is strong thanks to its people and the support of the brotherly and friendly people,” according to Syria’s state news agency SANA, stressing that “Syria is capable of overcoming the current events and that it won't ever give up its stances, principles and sovereignty whatever the pressures may be.”

Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon “should have followed the constitutional path in Lebanon,” noting that “no one would have opposed it in that case.”

In an interview with Al-Afkar weekly to be published Friday, Berri emphasized that the court “is still unconstitutional because neither the president nor the parliament have ratified it.”

The Syndical Coordination Committee called for a strike on December 15 to protest against the government’s wage hike decree.

It also urged public administrations to take part in a protest that it will stage on the same day.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Thursday that Lebanon is an active member of the international community and the Arab world.

He said after holding talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Mykola Azarov: “No one can isolate Lebanon and it will not be isolated from the international and Arab communities.”

President Michel Suleiman travelled to Armenia on Thursday on a three-day official visit that will include the signature of several cooperation agreements.

Suleiman left Rafik Hariri international airport along with First Lady Wafaa and a delegation of ministers and MPs on Thursday morning.