General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim said on Friday that efforts continue to find a “serious” mediator to negotiate the release of servicemen abducted in 2014 by the Islamic State group, the National News Agency reported.

“We are looking for a serious mediator to negotiate the file of the servicemen abducted by the IS,” said Ibrahim during a trip to West Bekaa.

Positive results with regard to the nomination of MP Michel Aoun for the presidential post are not to be expected from Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat, and a tripartite alliance with Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh is not in the making, An Nahar daily reported on Friday.

Sources who held meetings with Berri and Jumblat earlier, said they observed “discouraging impressions” as for a suggestion to support Aoun for the presidency, the daily quoted the sources on condition of anonymity.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea will begin political contacts as soon as he returns to the country from a trip abroad, to follow up on the political mobility that spiked lately in an attempt to reach consensus on a head of state, as LF sources defend the party's right to claim ministerial portfolio including the defense and interior, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.

Commenting on speculations that some refuse to assign the defense and interior ministries to the Lebanese Forces, an LF source said: “We will not accept this exclusion, because the LF is an essential component and has the right like all other political parties to handle any of the ministries without any veto.”

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri held talks Thursday evening with Speaker Nabih Berri as part of his latest drive regarding the issue of the presidency.

The Free Patriotic Movement on Thursday said it “strongly condemns” a decision by Defense Minister Samir Moqbel to postpone the retirement of Army chief General Jean Qahwaji, vowing that it will not “remain silent” over “the insistence on violating the laws.”

Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Nazih Naggari held talks Thursday with al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri and noted that the former premier is “exerting a great effort to end the presidential vacancy.”

Defense Minister Samir Moqbel announced on Thursday that he will sign a decision to extend the term of Army Commander Jean Qahwaji today and another decision to extend the term of Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Walid Salman on Friday.

“We will not accept vacuum in the military institution. I will sign a decision today to extend the term of Qahwaji since the cabinet failed to convene Thursday. I have summoned Major General Salman and asked him to exercise his duties as chief of staff,” said Moqbel in a press conference.

The Lebanese army shelled the positions of militant groups in the outskirts of the northeastern town of Arsal on Thursday, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The army targeted the movements of militants in Wadi al-Khayl, al-Zamrani and Wadi al-Debb in the outskirts, added NNA.

The Free Patriotic Movement has postponed the streets rallies that it vowed to kick off after the parliamentary meeting on September 28 dedicated for the election of a president, until al-Mustaqbal Movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri ends his consultations with political parties and the FPM's anticipations that it could bring Aoun to the post of presidency, the pan-Arab al-Hayat daily reported on Thursday.

A solution to Lebanon's presidential impasse is not in the hands of al-Mustaqbal Movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri as the latest political activities on the ground are trying to demonstrate, but in the hands of Hizbullah and Iran, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday.

An official in the March 14 alliance, said it is unlikely for founder of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun to become president, and affirmed that the “cards are in the hands of Hizbullah and Iran which is keeping it among its stack of cards in Yemen and Iraq in order to improve its negotiations with the new American administration,” the official told the daily.