Syndicate Coordination Committee chief Hanna Gharib stressed Monday that employees are confronting "thieves" who are preventing the approval of the new wage scale, as a parliamentary panel tasked with studying the salary hike cautiously announced that it will likely be approved on Wednesday, throwing the ball in parliament's court.

“The poor united the country under the slogan of the SCC,” Gharib, who is also head of the Public Secondary School Education Teachers Association, said at one of the protests that was held near the Social Affairs Ministry in Beirut's Badaro district.

The Free Patriotic Movement of MP Michel Aoun has proposed to the Maronite church a vacuum in the government and parliament to pressure lawmakers into electing a new president, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Monday.

Al-Akhbar quoted Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil as telling Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi that neither Sunni nor Shiite officials were eager to hold the elections on time.

Speaker Nabih Berri threatened on Monday to suspend the tripartite meetings held at al-Naqoura crossing between the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon and senior Lebanese and Israeli officials if the Jewish state continues violating the country's sovereignty.

“Those who are keen to safeguard Lebanon's sovereignty and independence and those who are in a hurry to get rid of the resistance should take into consideration first the Israeli violations,” Berri said in remarks published in As Safir newspaper.

Hizbullah on Sunday stressed that the country's new president must be “in harmony with the resistance,” accusing the March 14 camp of seeking presidential vacuum through fielding a “provocative” candidate.

“We insist on and cling to a president who would be entrusted with the national principles, interests and achievements, contrary to the March 14 camp, which is awaiting a chance to turn against the domestic political equations,” deputy head of Hizbullah's executive council Sheikh Nabil Qaouq said at a memorial service in the southern town of Kafra.

Speaker Nabih Berri has expressed his frustration at the strike carried out by public sector employees and the call of teachers to boycott the official exams, As Safir daily reported on Saturday.

Berri revealed his disappointment to his visitors, saying he was quick to hand a copy of the wage hike draft-law to the Syndicate Coordination Committee when a ministerial-parliamentary committee amended it.

Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that the authorities exercised by the parliament are legislative and are not linked to the sessions on the election of a president.

In remarks to several local dailies published on Friday, Berri said he can call for parliamentary sessions to approve draft-laws and for sessions to elect a new head of state.

Parliament failed on Wednesday for the third week in a row to elect a new president over differences between the March 8 and 14 alliances and amid warnings of a possible vacuum at Baabda Palace, more than two weeks before the expiry of President Michel Suleiman's tenure.

Speaker Nabih Berri set May 15 as a new round of voting after the March 8 lawmakers again boycotted the elections.

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awadh Asiri held a series of meetings on Tuesday with a number of officials on the latest local and regional developments, especially Wednesday's presidential elections, reported the National News Agency.

He kicked off his talks by meeting Speaker Nabih Berri at his Ain el-Tineh residence after which he expressed Riyadh's support for Lebanon's security and agreement among its people.

Syndicate Coordination Committee official Nehme Mahfoud said that the SCC will issue its stance from the amended version of the public sector pay hike draft-law on Tuesday amid a warning that the coalition would launch “war” against the raise.

“The SCC will meet this afternoon to state its remarks on the pay raise in its new form and will inform Speaker Nabih Berri about them,” Mahfoud, who is the head of the private school teachers association, told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).

Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that power-sharing between Christians and Muslims in Lebanon would not change under any circumstance, An Nahar daily reported on Tuesday.

“There is no going back from the concept of power-sharing,” Berri reportedly said during the national dialogue session in response to a recent warning made by President Michel Suleiman.