Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil asked on Friday for the assistance of the international community to prevent interference in Lebanon's internal affairs and hoped that the vacuum at the presidential palace would not persist.

Bassil addressed diplomats based in Lebanon, asking for “assistance not to meddle in its affairs but to stand by its residents and institutions.”

Four people were arrested on Friday for recruiting members to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, reported the National News Agency.

It said that State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged the four suspects, who include a Muslim cleric, with recruiting people to join the jihadist group.

Army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji hailed troops for thwarting the “dream” to form a terrorist “Emirate” in Lebanon, vowing to root out radicals and secure the release of hostages.

Qahwaji warned in his Order of the Day that Independence Day comes as “Lebanon faces the biggest terrorist plot in the entire region.”

The Lebanese army intelligence has arrested a member of a robbery gang after he was caught red-handed in Beirut, the state-run National News Agency reported on Friday.

NNA said that H. Daryan was apprehended as he was snatching Mais Doumit's purse in the Gemmayze area on Thursday night.

The Constitutional Council held a meeting on Friday to discuss the appeal of the Free Patriotic Movement MPs against the law that extended the term of parliament until June 2017.

No decision was taken following the talks.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam is planning to visit Brussels in December to discuss with European Union officials the burden of Syrian refugees, An Nahar daily reported on Friday.

Salam is mulling to discuss with the European officials promised assistance to Lebanon, which is hosting around 1.5 million Syrian refugees, said the newspaper.

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri said on Friday that it was “disgraceful” for Lebanon's Independence Day to be celebrated amid a vacuum at the Baabda Palace, calling for the election of a head of state whose priority lies in fighting strife.

“It is disgraceful for Independence Day to come in the absence of a president, who is given by the constitution the honor of oath to preserve the independence and the territorial integrity of the nation,” said Hariri in a statement.

Speaker Nabih Berri has denied preconditions were set for a dialogue between Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal movement as he is exerting strong efforts to open communication channels between the rival parties.

Berri told his visitors on Thursday that he was preparing the agenda for the talks along with a similar measure taken by al-Mustaqbal.

Kataeb Party leader Amin Gemayel on Thursday rejected a proposal by Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun on limiting the presidential battle to himself and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, describing it as a “war of elimination” against democracy.

“General Aoun's proposal is a 'war of elimination' that is aimed at getting rid of everyone,” Gemayel said during an interview on LBCI television.

Two shells fired from the Syrian side of the border landed Thursday in the Lebanese southern town of Shebaa, in the first incident of its kind since the eruption of the Syrian conflict.

“Two artillery shells struck the eastern part of the town of Shebaa after being launched from the eastern hills of Mount Hermon on the Syrian side of the border,” Lebanon's National News Agency reported.