Discussions over a controversial Iranian grant to the Lebanese army have been “frozen” to avoid any rift between cabinet members as the United States pressed to “delay” the matter until other arming pledges are met.

According to the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat, Prime Minister Tammam Salam is stalling all discussions at cabinet meetings over the matter to prevent any crisis between its two main components Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal movement.

President Barack Obama attempted to rally allied commanders around his emerging strategy to defeat Islamic State jihadists on Tuesday, as the U.S.-led air armada stepped up its raids in Syria.

Coalition jets carried out two dozen strikes to relieve pressure on Kobane, but Obama admitted to deep concern about the Syrian border town's fate and he warned of a long campaign ahead. 

The skulls of seven French Trappist monks killed in Algeria 18 years ago were exhumed Tuesday in the presence of two French magistrates, the APS news agency reported.

The monks were killed in 1996 after being abducted from the Notre Dame de l'Atlas monastery in Tibehirine, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Algiers, and only their severed heads were ever recovered.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tuesday that any recognition of Palestine as a state must be "helpful to peace" as part of a two-state solution, and not just symbolic.

A day after British lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to recognize Palestine as a state in a highly symbolic and non-binding vote, Fabius said France would do so only "when the time is right."

A Belgian court sentenced a Frenchman to 18 years in prison Tuesday for leading a "terrorist group" that recruited jihadists to fight with Somalia's Shebab movement, reports said.

Rachid Benomari, 41, took four people with him to the Horn of Africa nation as well as organizing and paying for the mission, the Belga news agency said.

France's president Tuesday urged Turkey to open its border to allow reinforcements to reach the besieged city of Kobane and called for more help to those fighting the advance of the Islamic State group.

Francois Hollande stressed that "all countries concerned", including those not in the coalition fighting the Islamic State group, should provide weapons to those battling the jihadists.

The names of several presidential candidates have been discussed as potential figures to fill the ongoing vacuum at the Baabda Palace, local newspapers reported on Tuesday.

An Nahar newspaper reported that head of the Mustaqbal Movement MP Saad Hariri discussed last week with French President Francois Hollande in Paris the names of four candidates from the March 14 alliance and three centrists.

Hundreds of people took to the streets of the northern French port of Calais Monday to demand a greater police presence in the face of an influx of migrants seeking to enter Britain.

Organizers said that 500 people took part in the march, which included shopkeepers, police officers and farmers. Local authorities put the turnout at 200.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri reiterated on Monday that he was trying hard to push for the election of a new president in Lebanon.

In an interview with the French daily Le Figaro, Hariri said: “Lebanon's coexistence … is menaced by the paralysis of institutions amid a presidential vacuum.”

France said Friday it was willing to unblock two key chapters of negotiation for Turkey's bid to become a member of the European Union.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters: "Today, I am announcing that France is ready to open new chapters for negotiations, notably chapters 23 and 24", which refer to fundamental rights and justice.