The teachers of private schools on Tuesday threatened to carry out an open-ended strike starting Wednesday if the parliament approves a new wage scale that does not involve granting them the so-called six degrees wage hike.

“Give me one reason to deprive private school teachers of the six degrees in the new wage scale? Is it because of our corruption or our lack of productivity?” Nehme Mahfoud, head of the private school teachers syndicate, said at a press conference.

The Change and Reform bloc reiterated on Tuesday its commitment to its stances regarding the new wage scale and its funding.

MP Ibrahim Kanaan said after the bloc's weekly meeting: “We continue to reject increasing the Value Added Tax to fund the wage scale as we cannot add more burdens on the people.”

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim has said that the negotiations to secure the release of the so-called Arsal hostages were on the right track.

Ibrahim told As Safir daily in remarks published on Tuesday that there was progress in the talks aimed at setting free the soldiers and policemen taken captive by jihadists from the northeastern border town of Arsal last month.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea has denied that he was hindering the election of a new president, laying the blame instead on his rival MP Michel Aoun, who heads the Free Patriotic Movement.

“Aoun is theoretically after the presidency but he is practically paralyzing the elections and suggesting” that the polls should not be held if he does not reach Baabda Palace, Geagea said.

Syrian refugees in Lebanon are facing increasing violence as tensions in the country rise after jihadists kidnapped and killed Lebanese security forces, a human rights group warned Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch said it had documented a string of attacks by Lebanese residents against Syrian refugees in August and September.

The security forces reopened on Tuesday the Masnaa road that leads to the border crossing with Syria in eastern Lebanon after it was blocked by the families of the troops and police taken hostage by jihadists.

The relatives are blocking other roads that are major arteries in northern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley.

The death toll in an attack on an army patrol in the northeastern border town of Arsal earlier this month rose to three on Tuesday, the military announced.

The army said in a communique that soldier Mahmoud Ali Fadel, who had been injured in the roadside bombing, succumbed to his injuries on Monday night.

Speaker Nabih Berri has expressed severe frustration at criticism directed against the army, rejecting verbal assaults on the military, which is caught in a battle with jihadists on the border with Syria.

“The army's soldiers and officers are among the best and we are proud of them,” Berri was quoted by An Nahar daily as saying on Tuesday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat has so far excluded Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea from his visit to top Lebanese officials after the latter refused to hold talks with presidential candidate Aley MP Henri Helou, a report said Tuesday.

Helou, who is the centrist PSP's candidate for the presidency, had contacted the LF leadership to set a date for a meeting with Geagea, al-Akhbar daily quoted PSP officials as saying.

The head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, who made a one-day visit to Beirut on Tuesday, said that Tehran will provide military assistance to Lebanon.

Ali Shamkhani made the announcement following talks with Prime Minister Tammam Salam at the Grand Serail.