Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said that the security apparatuses in Lebanon were able to uncover and thwart schemes by the Islamic State group to carry out terror acts, mainly in crowded areas in Beirut, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday.

Mashnouq said that the security forces are waging the “fiercest battle” against attempts to shake the security situation, and that the army intelligence was able to thwart a plan of a terror act in one of the capital's streets.

Tripoli MP Robert Fadel announced Monday his resignation from parliament, protesting the surprising results of Sunday's elections in the northern city in which no Christian candidates managed to win seats on the municipal council.

The Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement will appeal the results of the municipal polls in the Akkar town of Qoubaiyat, where the two allies lost a close race to a coalition formed by al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Hadi Hbeish and ex-MP Mikhail al-Daher, an LF official said Monday.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag visited the United Arab Emirates on Monday for talks on Lebanon, her office said.

A Palestinian man was arrested Monday in the Eastern Sidon region on charges of contacting “extremist groups,” state-run National News Agency reported.

“Following a surveillance and enticement operation, a patrol from General Security's intelligence branch arrested the Palestinian Kh. A. in the Siroub area east of Sidon for his communication with extremist groups,” NNA said.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon observed on Monday the International Day of U.N. Peacekeepers, paying tribute to thousands of military and civilian personnel for their service of peace, in a ceremony held at its Naqoura Headquarters in southern Lebanon.

UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander, Major-General Luciano Portolano, underlined that for more than 70 years, since 1948 when the first Peacekeeping Mission was established “U.N. peacekeeping has been a dedicated and internationally recognized instrument aimed at supporting countries around the world in the difficult transition from conflict to peace.”

A Dubai court has sentenced a Lebanese-American businessman to 15 years in prison over fraud and misuse of power in a property deal, local media reported Monday.

Zack Shahin, a former CEO of Emirati property firm Deyaar who has been in detention for more than eight years, was sentenced Sunday along with two others over a 56.3-million-dirham ($15.3-million) fraud, Khaleej Times reported.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement chief MP Saad Hariri met in Kuwait on Monday with Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah al-Sabah where talks focused on the developments in Lebanon and the region and Iran's “unacceptable” interference in other countries, Hariri's press office said in a statement.

The meeting was held in the presence of several Kuwaiti officials and Lebanese ex-MPs Bassel al-Sabaa and Ghattas Khoury and Hariri's adviser Nader Hariri.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq praised on Monday the success of the municipal elections, saying that they demonstrated that the Lebanese people “yearn for a return to state institutions.”

He hoped in a press conference assessing the polls that they would be followed by parliamentary ones.

Resigned Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi stressed on Monday that his “hand is extended to all sides” in wake of his list's victory in the municipal polls in the northern city of Tripoli, reiterating his commitment to the values of the March 14 coalition.

He said during a press conference: “We voiced our rejection of the control of one political party of Tripoli and the control of the Syrian regime allies of the city's municipality.”