The Syndical Coordination Committee called for a strike on December 15 to protest against the government’s wage hike decree.

It also urged public administrations to take part in a protest that it will stage on the same day.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Thursday that Lebanon is an active member of the international community and the Arab world.

He said after holding talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Mykola Azarov: “No one can isolate Lebanon and it will not be isolated from the international and Arab communities.”

President Michel Suleiman travelled to Armenia on Thursday on a three-day official visit that will include the signature of several cooperation agreements.

Suleiman left Rafik Hariri international airport along with First Lady Wafaa and a delegation of ministers and MPs on Thursday morning.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman reportedly said that Hizbullah would resort to violence whenever it dislikes a certain situation.

“Hizbullah is a terrorist organization that participated in the elections,” Feltman told the Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper on Thursday.

The controversial wage hike proposal, which was approved by the majority of the cabinet on Wednesday, had the support of Industry Minister Vrej Sabounjian, a member of the Change and Reform bloc led by MP Michel Aoun, and Hizbullah ministers Mohammed Fneish and Hussein Hajj Hassan.

“The data introduced by (Premier Najib) Miqati were convincing,” Tashnag party minister Sabounjian told As Safir newspaper on Thursday to justify his support for the PM’s proposal rather than the decree introduced by Change and Reform’s Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas.

Baabda Palace has reportedly snubbed visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman after the failure of President Michel Suleiman to meet with any U.S. official during his visit to New York in September.

An Nahar daily said Thursday that the presidential palace did not set a date for talks between Suleiman and Feltman as a retaliation to the failure to hold any meeting between the Lebanese head of a state and U.S. officials on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in September.

Free Patriotic Movement ministers have blasted Premier Najib Miqati for proposing an alternative to Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas’ decree on the wage boost for private and public sector employees.

“The formula approved by the council of ministers is not in favor of the workers,” Nahhas told As Safir newspaper on Thursday, a day after the cabinet approved Miqati’s proposal.

President of the General Labor Confederation Ghassan Ghosn slammed on Thursday the wage hike decree adopted by the cabinet, describing it as “humiliating.”

“We reject this humiliating wage boost because it doesn’t reach out to the hopes of the workers and their demands,” Ghosn told An Nahar newspaper.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed that President Michel Suleiman is his constitutional partner and is keen on his relations with him in addition to his ties with Hizbullah.

In remarks to As Safir daily published Thursday, Miqati said: “We have ideal ties and I am keen on them.”

The cabinet on Wednesday approved a wage increase decree other than that proposed by Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas, amid the objection of Free Patriotic Movement ministers.

Briefing reporters after the cabinet session, Information Minister Walid al-Daouq said: “A wage increase decree other than that proposed by Minister Nahhas was discussed and it received the required majority of votes and this is the democratic game.”