Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil has denied that he avoided to meet with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry during his visit to Beirut on Wednesday, saying he could not cancel his trip to China, which is a major investing country.

In an interview with al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Friday, Bassil said: “We were informed about Kerry's visit only 48 hours before” his arrival to Beirut.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi allegedly will not hesitate in calling for protests and civil disobedience over the ongoing presidential deadlock, urging the U.S. administration in a letter to facilitate the matter in cooperation with the Islamic Republic of Iran and Saudi Arabia.

According to As Safir newspaper published on Friday, al-Rahi expressed readiness a day before during a meeting with the Maronite institutions to call for wide protests led by the church.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Thursday issued a decision confirming June 18 as the date for the resumption of trial in the Ayyash et al. case, rejecting a postponement appeal filed by the counsel of the accused Hassan Merhi.

“The Appeals Chamber today rendered a decision confirming June 18 as the date for the resumption of trial in the Ayyash et al. case,” the STL said in a statement.

Education Minister Elias Bou Saab vowed on Thursday that the official school exams in Lebanon will be complete, especially in light of the growing number of Syrian refugees in the country.

He said: “It is out of the question for the official exams to be postponed again.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat criticized on Thursday the Syrian presidential elections with a caustic and sarcastic statement, noting the regime's bloody crackdown against the people and the international community's disappointing stances towards the Syrian people.

He said sarcastically: “The regime could have achieved better results in the glittering, diverse, transparent, and democratic elections, had the dead, which exceeded 200,000, and displaced, who exceed eight million, been able to cast their votes.”

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader MP Saad Hariri on Thursday called for “real global solidarity” with the Syrian people aimed at “eradicating” Syrian President Bashar Assad from political existence.

“No elections in the history of humanity have been deplored and described with degrading terms such as the elections that granted Bashar Assad a new presidential term,” Hariri said in a communique.

A number of people were arrested on Wednesday in the northern city of Tripoli for firing gunshots and grenades to celebrate the re-election of Syrian President Bashar Assad, announced the army in a statement on Thursday.

It said that a total of 23 suspects were arrested.

Health Minister Wael Abou Faour on Thursday rejected from Ain el-Tineh any attempt to spread political vacuum into the parliament and cabinet amid the ongoing presidential void, stressing that “obstruction” will not lead anywhere.

“We are in a dilemma and a failure has happened in the presidential elections, but that must not lead to other failures or the paralysis of the parliament and cabinet,” Abou Faour said after meeting Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain al-Tineh, delegated by MP Walid Jumblat.

Syrian members of the Nusra Front killed on Thursday a fellow Syrian in the eastern Bekaa town of Arsal, reported the National News Agency.

It said that a number of the gunmen killed Khaled al-Mustafa.

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly reiterated on Thursday the international community's insistence that Lebanon elect a new president in order to fill the vacuum in the presidency.

He said after holding talks with Prime Minister Tammam Salam at the Grand Serail: “Needless to say, our main message is one you have heard repeatedly over the past two weeks from the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the Security Council, from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday and from the International Support Group the necessity of electing a new president as soon as possible.”