Head of the Change and Reform bloc MP Michel Aoun said on Monday that the way in which the international community and the United Nations are addressing the Syrian refugees issue in Lebanon “is dubious” and raises fears of hidden intentions to naturalize them.

“The international community and the United Nations are addressing the issue of displaced Syrians in a dubious and suspicious manner. It makes us believe that there are intentions to impose naturalization on us as a fait accompli,” Aoun told As Safir daily.

Mufti of Tripoli and the North Sheikh Malek al-Shaar received at his residence in Tripoli on Saturday Marada leader MP Suleiman Franjieh where talks stressed the need for rapprochement to end the presidential vacuum.

After the meeting Shaar said: “This national meeting carries only one concern and that is the presidential vacuum in the country.

The Internal Security Forces arrested on Saturday civil society activist Pierre al-Hashash against the backdrop of storming the offices of Saudi daily Asharq al-Awsat a day earlier, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Hashash was arrested in the northern city of Batroun based on a judicial order.

The Lebanese army arrested six Syrian nationals in the northern town of Deir al-Ahmar in Baalbek including a man who is wanted on charges of belonging to a terror group, the Lebanese Army Orientation Directorate said in a statement on Saturday.

“Six Syrians were arrested for wandering illegally inside Lebanon's territory. A man known as Ezzedine Rahil al-Suleimani was among the detainees. He was arrested on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization and for recruiting people to work for the group,” the statement added.

Lebanese politicians continue to give momentum for conducting the municipal elections on time in light of the failure to hold the presidential elections to end the almost 22-month vacuum.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea stressed on Saturday that his party supports holding the municipal elections on time and that it is unlikely that they will be postponed.

Armed clashes renewed Saturday morning at the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Sidon after heavy clashes erupted overnight leaving one person killed and several others wounded, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said that sniper operations were also heard in al-Braxat and al-Sifsaf neighborhoods and that two members of the Joint Palestinian Security Force were wounded.

The embassy of Saudi Arabia in Beirut has taken precautionary security measures three days ago in light of the threats that the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awadh Asiri has received lately, An Nahar daily reported on Saturday.

The security measures were taken ahead of an incident that took place at the offices of the Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat when a group of young men stormed its Beirut offices in protest at a cartoon deemed insulting to Lebanon, added the daily.

A detained doctor has confessed to carrying out “nearly 200 abortions,” the Internal Security Forces has said in a statement, a day after it said it busted Lebanon's largest known sex trafficking ring and freed 75 mainly Syrian women.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said on Friday that the upcoming municipal elections will kick off on May 15 instead of May 9 so they will not coincide with the holidays.

He slammed reports that the elections have been postponed and emphasized that they were only rescheduled because they coincide with Labor Day and Easter holiday.

Saudi owned al-Arabiya television news channel said on Friday that it has shut down its office in Beirut citing security reasons.

Al-Arabiya and its partner company al-Hadath closed office located in Riad el-Solh square in downtown Beirut after informing the employees through the Director of Personnel and the station's lawyer Elie Danniel of the decision.