The National Media Council (NMC) will demand the Lebanese broadcasting audio-visual channels to refrain from creating sectarian strife and threatening the national security, local newspapers reported on Wednesday.

The NMC is scheduled to hold a meeting on Friday to tackle the uncontrolled broadcasting by some channels that failed to commit to the legal boundaries of the audio-visual law.

President Michel Suleiman will head to Iran on August 29 to attend the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran, As Safir newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The daily reported that Suleiman is expected to hold talks with several counterparts including Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The death toll of gunbattles that have been raging in the northern port city of Tripoli since Monday rose to seven, the state-run National News Agency reported on Wednesday.

NNA said there were heavy clashes between the rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen overnight during which B7 and Energa rockets were used.

The Army leadership and the general command of the Internal Security Forces will hold a meeting on Wednesday morning to coordinate their joint efforts in arresting those involved in the latest kidnappings of Syrians and Turkish nationals, An Nahar daily reported.

The newspaper said the meeting will be held at the Defense Ministry in Yarze under the instruction of President Michel Suleiman to investigate the identity of the people who participated in the kidnappings in the past few days and hand them over to the competent judicial authorities.

The United State has expressed deep concern over the violence in the northern city of Tripoli and the kidnappings spree of Syrian and Turkish nationals across Lebanon.

“We are very concerned about this violence and the spillover effect from what’s going on in Syria, and particularly the latest violence in Tripoli,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Tuesday.

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed anger on Wednesday over the chaotic situation in Lebanon, stressing that the airport road is a “red line,” local newspapers reported.

“The hand of whoever blocks the airport road will be cut,” Berri told As Safir newspaper.

The Islamic personalities of the northern city of Tripoli announced on Tuesday that an agreement had been reached with the residents of Bab al-Tabbaneh to implement an immediate ceasefire in the clashes that had been raging with the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood since Monday.

MP Mohammed Kabbara also condemned after the meeting the “army’s random gunshots at some innocents.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea criticized on Tuesday the Syrian regime’s plans to issue arrest warrants against various Lebanese figures, deeming such a step as “laughable.”

He said before an emigrant delegation at his Maarab residence: “The regime is not aware that it is no longer a state. We don’t consider it to be a state.”

Head of the Free Syrian Army Colonel Riad al-Asaad accused on Tuesday the Syrian regime of being behind the claim that a member of al-Meqdad clan is being held captive by the FSA.

He said: “This is one of the regime’s games to create strife and instability in Lebanon.”

Speaker Nabih Berri lamented on Tuesday the current state of affairs in Lebanon, slamming the “kidnappings, sniper activity, blocking of roads, and clan military wings.”

He asked in a statement: “Where is the role of the political authorities and parties regarding the latest developments?”