Prime Minister Tammam Salam criticized on Wednesday the tense political rhetoric between various political powers, saying that “they do not help Lebanon in confronting the security danger.”

He said after meeting Speaker Nabih Berri at Ain el-Tineh: “Competition among politicians is putting at risk the lives of the soldiers and policemen taken captive in Arsal.”

Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat has held telephone conversations with Christian leaders ahead of his private visit abroad, An Nahar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Jumblat inquired on Tuesday the unidentified officials on the possibility of reaching a breakthrough in the presidential crisis following his return to Beirut, it said.

Speaker Nabih Berri urged al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri to speed up the Saudi military assistance to Lebanon, local dailies reported on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, Hariri announced from Saudi Arabia a grant of $1 billion for the Lebanese army to help its fight against militants.

Speaker Nabih Berri on Tuesday summoned the ambassadors of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly, stressing to them the need to quickly equip the Lebanese armed forces, even if that required “bypassing the routine mechanism.”

Berri met with the envoys at his Ain al-Tineh headquarters, explaining “the threats that Lebanon is facing, which were manifested in the incidents that the Arsal region suffered and is still suffering at the hands of terrorist groups.”

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri has reportedly informed Speaker Nabih Berri that he backed a “logical settlement” on the presidential deadlock by agreeing on personalities, who are currently not candidates.

Al-Akhbar daily said that Hariri's proposal on the settlement, includes the withdrawal of the candidacies of Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea and his rival Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun to “agree on a personality who is capable of protecting the political understanding.”

Speaker Nabih Berri has stayed mum on efforts he is exerting along with Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat to resolve the presidential deadlock.

Local newspapers quoted Berri as saying on Monday that he “cannot talk about any possible progress to guarantee the success of the work we are doing.”

Druze leader MP Walid Jumblat noted on Sunday that the fight against the Islamic State group is still “at the beginning,” as Lebanese Democratic Party chief MP Talal Arslan said there is a “unified stance” with the head of the Progressive Socialist Party in the face of the “impending danger.”

“Political diversity in Baisour is valuable for Lebanon and the nation and we must preserve diversity in order to boost stability and fight the takfiris,” said Jumblat during a joint visit with Arslan to the Aley District town.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi called on the political arch-foes to take “courageous” stances before the upcoming parliamentary session aimed at electing a president.

“Holding onto personal opinions and calling on the rivals to agree with them compelled the country to fall into the trap of not electing a new head of state and to obstruct the parliament's quorum,” al-Rahi said during Sunday's sermon in his summer seat of Diman.

Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil stressed on Sunday that Lebanon's battle against terrorism and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant doesn't require any foreign intervention, saying that the Change and Reform bloc's proposal for a constitutional amendment requires local accord.

“Lebanon can always count on its local forces, which are united,” Khalil said in an interview with the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat.

Speaker Nabih Berri has refused to comment on a proposal made by Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun's parliamentary bloc to make a constitutional amendment aimed at resolving the presidential deadlock.

But Berri reiterated in remarks published in local dailies on Friday that “we haven't yet crossed the red line.”