Lebanese citizen Joseph George Ghanem, 50, was briefly abducted on Saturday in the Bekaa city of Baalbek, state-run National News Agency reported.

Ghanem, the representative of the Bush Hardware Company in the Bekaa, was freed around an hour from his abduction after the armed kidnappers robbed him of $4,000, a credit card and his personal cellphone, NNA said.

Lebanon has all but closed its borders to refugees fleeing Syria's civil war, overwhelmed by an influx of over one million people displaced by fighting, U.N. and Lebanese officials said Saturday.

Quoted by al-Akhbar newspaper, Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas said Lebanon "no longer officially receives any displaced Syrians."

Defense Minister Samir Moqbel on Saturday started a three-day visit to Tehran for talks expected to culminate in him securing military equipment to bolster Lebanon's fight against jihadists.

His visit comes two weeks after Iran vowed to supply the Lebanese army with much-needed equipment following its deadly clashes with fighters from the Islamic State group and al-Qaida affiliate, al-Nusra Front, on the Syrian border in August.

The Army Intelligence carried out on Saturday raids on Syrian refugee encampments in the northern city of Zgharta and the Mount Lebanon region of Iqlim al-Kharroub, reported the National News Agency.

It said that 15 Syrians were arrested during the operation in Zgharta.

A general session aimed at electing members of parliamentary committees next week will be used to set the date for a session to extend parliament's term, reported the Kuwaiti daily al-Anba on Saturday.

Parliamentary sources told the daily that the parliament will approve the extension draft-law and speed up its implementation in a manner that will lead to its publication in the official gazette within five days.

A detainee held by the Army Intelligence confessed during investigations to his role during the August clashes in the northeastern border town of Arsal between the army and Islamists from Syria, reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday.

Ibrahim Bohloq confessed that he belongs to the Islamic State jihadist group, adding that he killed Colonel Noureddine al-Jamal.

Head of the Mustaqbal Movement MP Saad Hariri highlighted to Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi the need to extend parliament's term given the failure to elect a new president, explaining that Lebanon will be faced with vacuum in these two state institutions if the extension does not take place, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday.

Hariri pledged to al-Rahi that he will “not back down from staging the presidential elections after the extension.”

A large quantity of arms and explosive ammunition was found on Friday evening near the house of General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim in the southern town of Kawthariyat al-Siyyad.

“Members of the General Security intelligence department in the South discovered a large quantity of arms, ammunition and explosive material that were packed in nylon bags and distributed in three areas near rocks, in the vicinity of … Ibrahim's house in Kawthariyat al-Siyyad,” state-run National News Agency reported.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq and Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas categorically rejected on Friday all calls for self-security in the face of the growing security concerns in the country, urging a bigger security role for municipalities.

“A lot of parties have spread rumors and calls for self-security as an excuse to take up arms,” Mashnouq said at a seminar on the role of municipalities which was organized by the Kataeb Party.

Kataeb Party leader Amin Gemayel on Friday called for urgent measures to control the presence of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and count their numbers, suggesting the recruitment of new municipal police members who would contribute to protecting towns and villages.

“We are largely counting on the role of local authorities and municipalities amid the current circumstances in the country and in the face of all the threats that Lebanon is facing,” said Gemayel at a Kataeb-organized seminar on the role of municipalities.