Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq on Friday morning asked Speaker Nabih Berri to postpone an AMAL Movement ceremony over security concerns, before clarifying in the evening that the event was not the target of a specific security plot and it was canceled as a precaution.

“We obtained information from foreign countries about booby-trapped cars in Lebanon, so in order not to allow the terrorists to target a rally containing 1,800 people, we recommended that AMAL Movement's ceremony be canceled and this is why I called Speaker Berri,” Mashnouq said in response to a reporter's question after a Higher Defense Council meeting at the Grand Serail.

Lebanese officials strongly condemned a bombing that targeted on Friday an Internal Security Forces checkpoint in eastern Lebanon amid rising fears of renewed violence in the country sparked by a stunning offensive by Sunni insurgents in nearby Iraq.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri called on “all Lebanese sects and parties to be vigilant and cautious and unite against the plot targeting Lebanon and the region, which only aims at inciting sedition.”

The political arch-foes agreed to hold a cabinet session next week after reaching a deal to meet with an uncontroversial agenda and on the procedure of inking decrees.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam informed Speaker Nabih Berri that rival parties agreed to attend a cabinet session next week after his return from a short visit to Kuwait, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Friday.

Speaker Nabih Berri revealed that an agreement had been reached on the majority of the details of the new wage scale, adding that the Mustaqbal bloc did not attend Thursday's legislative session aimed at addressing the pay hike due to its commitment to its allies the Lebanese Forces and Kataeb blocs, reported the daily An Nahar on Friday.

He told his visitors that an agreement had been reached over the most “minute details” of the new wage scale draft-law, revealing that the Syndicate Coordination Committee had voiced reservations over implementing the raise in installments and increasing the Value Added Tax as a way to fund it.

The parliament once again failed on Thursday in approving the controversial pay hike for the public sector as the Syndicate Coordination Committee warned officials not to politicize the wage scale.

But Speaker Nabih Berri decided to keep the legislative sessions open-ended.

Resolving the dispute over raising the Value Added Tax is among the main obstacles that may hinder the approval of the new wage scale during a legislative session scheduled for Thursday.

Given the lingering differences, the session may not even be attended by the Mustaqbal bloc, which may lead to a lack of quorum at parliament.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea said on Wednesday that his political arch-foe Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun isn't responsible for head of al-Mustaqbal Movement Saad Hariri's security, stressing that staging the parliamentary elections amid presidential vacuum is a dangerous precedent.

“It is early to discuss the legislative polls... But if we carry out the elections without a head of state then we will return to the same crisis,” Geagea told reporters at Maarab after lawmakers failed for the seventh time to elect a new president.

Lawmakers failed on Wednesday for the seventh time to elect a new president as differences between the rival parties seemed not to be abating.

Speaker Nabih Berri postponed the session to July 2 to fill the seat of the country's top Christian post at Baabda Palace.

The dispute on the wage scale for the public sector has made some breakthrough after talks between the finance minister and al-Mustaqbal bloc's leader but differences between the parliamentary blocs remained on the funding.

An Nahar newspaper said on Wednesday that al-Mustaqbal bloc chief MP Fouad Saniora held talks with the representatives of the March 14 alliance to discuss the pay raise.

Visiting Kuwaiti Speaker Marzouq al-Ghanim said on Tuesday that the Gulf State never wavered in backing Lebanon.

He stressed: “Kuwait will never abandon Lebanon under any circumstances.”