The Progressive Socialist Party of MP Walid Jumblat called on Friday for a prisoner swap to secure the freedom of the soldiers and policemen taken captive by jihadists.

Speaking on behalf of Jumblat, who is currently in Paris Health Minister Abou Faour said: “The Lebanese authorities should adopt a prisoner exchange.”

Kataeb Party leader Amin Gemayel on Friday rejected outright the approval of draft-laws under the slogan of “necessary legislation” at a time when Baabda Palace is vacant, saying the candidates running for the polls should step aside to facilitate the election of a president.

“The most important legislation is the election of a president as soon as possible,” Gemayel said during a press conference he held at the Kataeb Party headquarters in Beirut's Saifi district.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea noted on Friday that the state is faced with two options regarding the release of the soldiers and policemen held captive by Islamist militants from Syria.

He said via Twitter: “The army should attempt to free them by force, which requires complete coordination with the international coalition against the Islamic State group.”

Electricite du Liban's board of directors urged the government on Friday to approve the transfer of the firm's belongings from its “occupied” headquarters in Beirut's Mar Mikhael area to another building.

The state-run company hoped that Energy Minister Arthur Nazarian would request the cabinet to approve the transfer of the documents and equipment from the main building to a new location so that EDL could function properly.

Two members of the Internal Security Forces Narcotics Control Bureau were released at dawn Friday hours after they were kidnapped in the northern city of Tripoli, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said unknown assailants took the policemen, who were in civilian clothes, as hostages on Thursday night in the Tripoli district of Bab al-Tabbaneh.

The brother of a Lebanese journalist based in the eastern city of Zahle has been kidnapped for ransom, LBCI TV reported on Friday.

"The abductors of the young man Khodr Farouq Darwish, whose car was found in Baalbek's al-Taybeh, have called his family and asked for a $135,000 ransom," the TV network said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has informed the Lebanese government that Ankara is not willing to act as a mediator in the case of the soldiers and policemen who were kidnapped by jihadists last month, As Safir daily reported on Friday.

Turkish officials have also informed the Lebanese authorities that their rejection to mediate stems from the “sensitivity” of the case, Lebanese ministerial sources said.

Speaker Nabih Berri has refused to call for a legislative session before receiving guarantees from the rival parties that they had agreed on the controversial wage scale for the public sector.

Al-Joumhouria daily on Friday quoted Berri as saying that a meeting of the parliament's bureau should precede the session and that he would call for it only if he receives the long awaited solution for the raise.

Lebanon has been in a “defensive war” with jihadists because the country is unable to carry out attacks against them, Prime Minister Tammam Salam has said.

“Lebanon is part of the efforts exerted by the international (community) to fight terrorism,” Salam told An Nahar daily's reporter in New York, where he is attending the U.N. General Assembly session.

The Muslim Scholars Committee on Thursday called for a “transparent probe” into alleged abuse of Syrian refugees at encampments in the Bekaa border town of Arsal, saying Friday will be a “No to Slaughtering Arsal” day.

“We call for a transparent and impartial investigation into the abuse of innocents and torching of encampments in Arsal,” the MSC said in a statement issued after an “emergency meeting.”