Cabinet postponed to Thursday discussions on the new wage scale due to the emergence of differences between Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Change and Reform ministers.

Miqati had requested at the meeting that the funding of the new scale be derived from increased taxes on construction and other sources.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour called on Wednesday for a solution to the Syrian crisis that is affecting Lebanon as he chaired the Arab League Ministerial Council that opened its session in Cairo.

Mansour took over the chairmanship of the 138th session for a six-month period from Kuwait’s deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is scheduled to visit Lebanon next week to discuss with Lebanese officials ways to provide logistic support for the Lebanese army, An Nahar daily reported on Wednesday.

An Nahar said Le Drian’s two-day visit next Thursday would come as part of a trip to Jordan where he is expected to inspect a Syrian refugee camp on the border with Syria.

Former prime minister Saad Hariri met with Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat in Paris on Tuesday and discussed with him the latest developments in Lebanon and the region, Hariri’s office said.

The meeting is the first between the two officials since the government of Hariri was toppled in December 2011 and the formation of a cabinet led by Prime Minister Najib Miqati.

Former prime minister Saad Hariri on Tuesday held talks in Paris with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, during which the French official stressed the importance of sparing Lebanon the repercussions of the Syrian crisis.

The meeting tackled the situations in Lebanon, the bilateral ties between the two countries and the latest developments in the region, according to a statement issued by Hariri’s press office.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday said Syria has intensified its shelling of northern border towns in order to “stoke tensions in Lebanon and the North and consequently provoke a response that would complicate things and inflict more harm on both the Syrians and the Lebanese.”

“After the foiling of the conspiracy that was being plotted by the cell of the criminals (ex-minister Michel) Samaha and (Syrian security chief Ali) Mamlouk, the Syrian regime is trying to export tensions to Lebanon in any possible way, that’s why the violations against Lebanese sovereignty have intensified,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

A man who received a hero’s welcome in Lebanon after spending 27 years in Syrian prisons is actually a “Syrian national,” media reports said on Tuesday.

“The Syrian embassy sent a cable to the Lebanese foreign ministry, noting that Yaacoub Chamoun is a Syrian national and that he was arrested for collaborating with Israel,” al-Manar television reported.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on Tuesday noted that it can help Lebanon control its border with Syria should the Lebanese government make such a request.

Commenting on media reports about a possible deployment of UNIFIL peacekeepers on the border with Syria, UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said UNIFIL’s deployment and missions were specified by the U.N. Security Council and approved by Lebanon’s government, noting that UNIFIL’s area of operations was defined by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah.

Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali on Tuesday said the memorandum submitted by the March 14 forces to President Michel Suleiman is “unachievable” and “unrealistic,” calling on the Lebanese government to respond to this “media uproar.”

“Syria has always made it clear that the treaties signed between the two countries serve Lebanon’s interest before Syria’s,” Ali said in an interview on al-Manar television.

A woman was killed and two people were wounded on Tuesday in the explosion of a landmine left over from the several wars with Israel in the southern town of Marwahin, state-run National News Agency reported.

The body of the 35-year-old woman, Nada Ghannam, was taken to Salah Ghandour Hospital in Bint Jbeil, NNA said.