The Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Lebanon, Ambassador Christina Lassen, visited on Thursday the 9th Brigade of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) deployed around the northeastern town of Arsal, an official statement said.

Lassen also held meetings with the Head of the Municipality of Arsal, Bassel el-Hujeiri, and with UN agencies representatives.

Kataeb party leader MP Sami Gemayel has called on “Lebanon's authority to step down” after a rally to celebrate the army's eastern border victory against Islamic State jihadists was called off, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday.

“Day after day, this authority proves its inability, failure and complicity, and day by day the need for its departure increases in order to save the free national decision and restore national sovereignty and establish the state's reference,” said Gemayel in an interview to the daily.

Hizbullah party said that the Islamic State group has released captive fighter Ahmed Maatouk early on Thursday as part of a Hizbullah-IS deal.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri held talks Wednesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Russian presidency's summer headquarters in Sochi.

The Lebanese army arrested several Islamic State linked jihadists in Arsal and carried out raids on an industrial complex of controversial Islamist cleric Sheikh Mustafa al-Hujeiri, aka Abu Taqiyeh and confiscated ample amounts of arms, the National News Agency reported on Wednesday.

At dawn, the army detained Syrian national identified as Khaled Fayad Berro in the northeastern border town of Arsal for having links to the IS extremist group. He is also wanted on accusations of booby trapping vehicles and arranging suicide attack bombings, NNA said.

Democratic Gathering leader MP Walid Jumblat said on Wednesday that allocating revenues for the wage scale law should have been made possible in order to make the law applicable.

“We have already warned that the salary scale would be impossible to implement without proper revenues and reforms. Nobody listened. We have signed on an inapplicable bill,” said Jumblat in a tweet.

Al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Samir al-Jisr said on Wednesday that a meeting between Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah “is unlikely.”

Ruling out the possibility of a meeting between the two men, Jisr told al-Joumhouria daily in an interview: “Circumstances for a such a meeting are not available.”

In light of reports circulating that a magnetic voting card may not be issued for the 2018 parliamentary elections, Speaker Nabih Berri voiced calls to bring the polls date closer, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri held separate talks Tuesday with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev and Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Lebanon has filed a complaint with the United Nations over the latest Israeli violations of Lebanon's airspace, the National News Agency reported on Tuesday.

“Lebanon has filed a complaint with the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and with Permanent Representative of Ethiopia to the United Nations, Tekeda Alemu over Israel's violations of Lebanon's airspace last Sunday,” said NNA.