Agriculture Minister Akram Shehayeb and Health Minister Wael Abou Faour held a joint press conference on Thursday over the food safety scandal, warning the owners of dairy factories that the state will not yield to their threats.

“We will not allow anyone pressure the state and the small producers... Greed is forbidden,” Abou Faour told reporters in comments on the protesters carried out by dairy farmers across the country last week over the fall in milk prices.

EU Ambassador to Lebanon Angelina Eichhorst has said that Lebanon “stands at crossroads,” warning that the country was suffering from the repercussions of the Syrian crisis.

“What I mean by crossroads is that you have foreign influences. All what's happening in the region is reflecting on Lebanon as a result of the crisis in Syria,” said Eichhorst.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam said on Wednesday that France will sign over the weekend the final agreement to equip the Lebanese army with the weapons and ammunition it has ordered, as he lamented the “insufficient” international support for Lebanon.

Salam spoke upon his arrival to Paris on a four-day official visit during which he will discuss with French officials political and security issues.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant threatened on Saturday to execute Lebanese soldiers and policemen in its captivity as the families of abducted servicemen called on the cabinet to resign if it was incapable of ending the kidnapping ordeal.

The families held the government responsible for the execution of policeman Ali Bazzal by al-Qaida-affiliate al-Nusra Front on Friday, announcing an open-ended escalation across Lebanon.

Nearly 2,000 people gathered in Beirut Saturday to form a giant letter "U" -- standing for unity -- as the country struggles to contain the fallout from neighbor Syria's civil war.

Organised by the Beirut Celebration non-governmental organisation, the event marked Lebanon's 71st Independence Day anniversary.

A French jihadist has described in court documents his path from the suburbs of Paris to Lebanon's capital Beirut where he was planning an attack on Shiite Muslims.

Fayez Yusef Bushran, originally from the Comoros islands, disclosed his journey in court documents seen by Agence France-Presse on Friday. He is also charged with membership of the Islamic State group (IS) and preparing a suicide bomb attack.

Lebanese police will prevent vehicles from entering the southern suburbs of Beirut from midnight as part of tight security measures imposed ahead of the Shiite Ashura commemoration, sources said Monday.

Security is usually tight for the event, but residents said this was the first time police were banning vehicles from the Shiite-majority southern suburbs the night before Tuesday's observance.

A delegation of the al-Mustaqbal Movement has traveled on Friday to the French capital in a bid to continue the negotiations that have been ongoing at various levels, al-Joumhouria daily said on Saturday.

The delegation included Nader Hariri, the adviser of al-Mustaqbal movement leader Saad Hariri, and a number of other consultants including former MP Ghattas Khoury.

Hizbullah and the AMAL movement's security measures in and around Beirut's southern suburbs of Dahieh will reach their peak as the tenth day of Ashura approaches on Tuesday, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday.

The residents of the area have voiced their satisfaction with the measures despite the traffic caused by the security efforts.

A Qatari mediator held negotiations Thursday with the militants of the Islamic State and al-Nusra Front in the outskirts of the Bekaa border town of Arsal, in a new bid to secure the release of 27 Lebanese troops and policemen held by the two extremist groups.

“The Qatari envoy headed at 3:45 pm to Arsal's outskirts after he was escorted by Lebanese security agents to the center of the town,” state-run National News Agency reported.