Speaker Nabih Berri has expressed severe frustration at criticism directed against the army, rejecting verbal assaults on the military, which is caught in a battle with jihadists on the border with Syria.

“The army's soldiers and officers are among the best and we are proud of them,” Berri was quoted by An Nahar daily as saying on Tuesday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat has so far excluded Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea from his visit to top Lebanese officials after the latter refused to hold talks with presidential candidate Aley MP Henri Helou, a report said Tuesday.

Helou, who is the centrist PSP's candidate for the presidency, had contacted the LF leadership to set a date for a meeting with Geagea, al-Akhbar daily quoted PSP officials as saying.

The head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, who made a one-day visit to Beirut on Tuesday, said that Tehran will provide military assistance to Lebanon.

Ali Shamkhani made the announcement following talks with Prime Minister Tammam Salam at the Grand Serail.

The Netherlands has promised to assist the Lebanese Army with weapons worth 2.3 million dollars, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil announced on Monday.

“We discussed with the Dutch foreign minister means to counter terrorism in the region. We also discussed the bilateral relations between the two countries and how to develop them,” Bassil stated on his Twitter account after a meeting with his Dutch counterpart Frans Timmermans in The Netherlands.

The Kataeb Party on Monday warned against approving draft laws under the slogan of “necessary legislation” amid the current presidential void, as it deplored a recent Syrian opposition statement accusing the Lebanese army of abuse against refugees.

The party “warns against any parliamentary course that might lead to legitimizing the presidential vacuum, which would violate the simplest rules of democracy, constitutional norms and the requirements of national coexistence,” Kataeb said in a statement issued after its politburo's weekly meeting.

Military Examining Magistrate Judge Fadi Sawan indicted on Monday a Syrian national for involvement in terrorist activities in Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Sawan said in his indictment that Sami Baqir, a member of an armed terrorist organization, had smuggled Syrian citizens from Lebanon to Syria and the other way around.

First Military Examining Magistrate Judge Riyad Abu Ghida issued on Monday an indictment against the operator of the Free Sunnis of Baalbek Brigade's twitter account.

The judge also called for Hussein al-Hussein to be tried at the military court.

Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan visited the families of the so-called Arsal hostages on Monday to persuade them to reopen the roads they are blocking in protest at the continued captivity of their loved ones.

“Road blocking is not the solution,” Adwan said during the meeting with the families of the captive soldiers and policemen at their protest site in Dahr al-Baidar.

Hizbullah official Ibrahim Amin al-Sayyed said Monday that he agreed with Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan on the importance of consolidating unity among the country's rival political parties.

Al-Sayyed, who visited Daryan at the head of a Hizbullah delegation, told reporters after the meeting that the two sides “agreed on the importance of consolidating unity, dialogue, understating and cooperation among the political parties in Lebanon.”

Speaker Nabih Berri chaired on Monday a meeting for parliament's bureau which set a date for a legislative session, whose agenda is topped with the controversial public sector wage scale.

MP Marwan Hamadeh said following the meeting that the members of the bureau put the agenda of the session, which Berri would call for Wednesday.