Lebanon decided to join a team of observers to monitor a plan aimed at ending a nine-month revolt against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime in response to a request by Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi, An Nahar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour received a written request from al-Arabi inviting Lebanon to join the observer mission, the daily said.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati held talks on Wednesday with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi and extended his greetings to him on the occasion of the holidays.

LBC TV said Miqati discussed with al-Rahi the electoral draft law and appointments of civil servants.

Opposition leaders have held talks to discuss the approval of both pro-March 8 and 14 Maronite leaders of a proposal by the Orthodox Gathering for each sect to choose its own representatives in the 2013 parliamentary elections, An Nahar daily reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper said that the March 14 leaders stressed the importance of discussing the proposal while taking into consideration the Taef Accord of 1989 which has called for the establishment of two parliaments: A non-sectarian legislature and a senate that elects its members along sectarian lines.

Attorneys told a federal judge Tuesday that a Lebanese immigrant accused of placing a backpack he thought held a bomb near Chicago's Wrigley Field will plead guilty under an agreement worked out with prosecutors — a deal experts say may reflect the enormous odds the 23-year-old would face at trial.

The rift over the wage hike decree is persisting as the cabinet is expected to tackle the top-priority issue on its agenda on Wednesday amid disputes between the Economic Committees and the General Labor Confederation on a LL25,000 increase.

Intensive contacts were held on Tuesday by Prime Minister Najib Miqati in an attempt to resolve the dispute over the raise. Separate delegations from the GLC and the Economic Committees met with Miqati at the Grand Serail then headed to Ain al-Tineh for talks with Speaker Nabih Berri.

A three-member Maronite delegation has so far failed to bridge the differences between President Michel Suleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun on the right candidate for the post of the Higher Judicial Council president, sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Thursday.

The Maronite sources said that former Ministers Michel Edde and Wadih Khazen and the head of the Maronite League Joseph Tarabay were only able so far to set a meeting between Suleiman and Aoun who held talks at Baabda palace on Saturday.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun stressed their strong alliance and the importance of full coordination in the next stage during a meeting they held on Tuesday.

A statement released by Hizbullah’s press office on Wednesday said Nasrallah and Aoun “stressed the importance of full coordination and the adoption of an effective mechanism in this regard during the upcoming stage.”

Former Premier Saad Hariri has said that Hizbullah will stop being stronger than the state once it stops relying on its weapons to impose its will.

“I believe weapons should be only in the hands of the Lebanese government,” Hariri said on twitter on Tuesday night.

Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn on Tuesday warned that al-Qaida members have entered the country through the Bekaa border town of Arsal “under the guise of being members of the Syrian opposition,” noting that he will raise the issue in cabinet.

During a meeting at his office with a delegation of high-ranking Lebanese army officers, Ghosn said: “We have information that certain operations are taking place at some illegal border crossings, especially in Arsal, where weapons and some al-Qaida terrorist elements are entering (the country) under the guise of being members of the Syrian opposition.”

The Mustaqbal bloc condemned on Tuesday the recent clashes that erupted in Beirut, saying that the security incidents are a reminder to the Lebanese people of the dangerousness of the ongoing presence of armed groups in the capital.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “These incidents were met with a lax approach by the security forces, which is a sign of the state’s waning power over the country.”