Prime Minister Saad Hariri marked Labor Day on Monday assuring that the Lebanese government has already begun taking a series of measures to reduce competition for the Lebanese labor market.

Drivers of pickup trucks staged a “symbolic” sit-in on Saturday in the northern district of Akkar protesting the competition from Syrians, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said the drivers protested the spiking hiring of Syrian drivers to transport agricultural produce from Bekaa and Akkar to other Lebanese regions.

Russian ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin stressed on Saturday that Lebanon must stage the parliamentary elections and pointed out that an electoral law is up for the Lebanese to decide.

“We insist on the issue of staging the parliamentary elections, but the draft of an electoral law is an internal Lebanese affair,” said the ambassador in an interview to VDL (100.5).

Efforts to reach a consensual electoral law to rule Lebanon's upcoming parliamentary polls continue but without any foreseeable results, al-Joumhouria daily said on Saturday.

Each political party "washes its hands of failure" to agree on a new law while maintaining adamant positions and distances itself from the complexity of the situation, which complicates things even further and obstructs an agreement, it added.

Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, the political assistant of Speaker Nabih Berri, refrained from attending what was described as an unprecedented meeting between various political parties over an electoral law, and that Berri is annoyed with the parties and their handling of his suggestion of an electoral law format, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

The daily said that “Khalil's absence came upon Berri's request as an expression of dissatisfaction with how his latest law proposal was handled by the political parties.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat touched on the presidential elections in France and cautioned against far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen's win in the second round of the elections.

“Be careful of Le Pen she has not been defeated yet. (Far-left firebrand Jean-Luc) Melenchon and the so-called far-left are dangerous, opportunists and have no principles,” said Jumblat in a tweet.

Lebanese Forces MP Shant Chinchinian confirmed on Friday the party's willingness to discuss any electoral law format provided that it ensures proper representation, "especially for the Christians."

"Some parties are deliberately wasting time so as to either impose the 1960 election law or extend the parliament's term,” Chinchinian told VDL (93.3) in an interview.

The General Security in Mount Lebanon arrested on Friday a group of three drug dealers in the Blat-Jbeil neighborhood north of Beirut, the National News Agency reported.

Based on an order by the competent judiciary, the General Security staged raids after midnight on a house in the neighborhood of Blat-Jbeil and arrested three individuals, two men and a female, active in the drug trade, NNA said.

Speaker Nabih Berri revealed that he has completed drafting two formats one for an electoral law based on proportional representation, and another “integrated” for establishing a senate, and that he handed them to the various political parties and kept their contents secret pending their positions, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.

Military Prosecutor Judge Saqr Saqr charged on Thursday five Lebanese with involvement with the Islamic State militant group, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said the suspects, two of whom were already in detention, were charged for taking part in security and military operations in favor of the IS.