The council of ministers on Thursday approved the one billion dollar Saudi grant to the Lebanese army, as reports said the needs of the military institution and of the Internal Security Forces will be provided soon.

The cabinet also tasked Education Minister Elias Bou Saab with issuing passing statements to students who applied for official exams on Saturday at most, after negotiations failed with the Syndicate Coordination Committee.

Saudi authorities on Thursday beheaded a Pakistani convicted drug trafficker and a local man found guilty of murder, the interior ministry said, raising to 26 the number of executions announced this year.

Sultan Hussein Khadim from Pakistan was put to the sword in the kingdom's Eastern Province, said a ministry statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun and al-Mustaqbal movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri are in continuous contact but a meeting between them is not near, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Thursday.

Contacts between Aoun and Hariri have not been cut, it said, adding that their relations are based on direct talks or envoys.

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday gave $100 million to the United Nations to support counter-terrorism efforts and called on other countries to do the same.

The donation follows a $500 million Saudi gift to the UN effort to help Iraqi refugees fleeing a jihadist advance.

Representatives of the Gulf monarchies met in Riyadh on Wednesday to discuss precautions against the Ebola epidemic ahead of the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in early October.

The executive bureau of the Gulf Cooperation Council's committee of health ministers met in the light of "preventive measures taken by some countries to protect against the Ebola virus... and the approach of the hajj," bureau director Taufik Khoja said.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has said that he would back the extension of parliament's term if it was conditioned with the election of a president.

There could be a technical extension for a few months, if the rival parties agreed to hold the presidential elections, Jumblat told As Safir newspaper in remarks published on Wednesday.

Head of al-Mustaqbal Movement and former premier MP Saad Hariri headed to Jeddah on Wednesday to discuss with Saudi officials the latest grant to Lebanese security forces.

In a statement issued by his press office, Hariri is expected to hold talks with senior Saudi officials concerning ways to spend the financial grant.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam expressed hope that the political arch-foes would reach a breakthrough regarding the political crises in the country, noting that it's the only way to resolve the controversial new pay hike for public employees.

“The solution lies in the agreement between the political powers to activate the work of the state,” Salam told An Nahar newspaper published on Wednesday.

Fearing a genocide of Christians, the Vatican has given its approval to U.S. military air strikes in Iraq -- a rare exception to its policy of peaceful conflict resolution.

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc condemned on Tuesday the parliament's failure to elect a new president after the tenth elections session, holding Hizbullah and the Change and Reform bloc responsible for obstructing the polls.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “Electing a new head of state should be a priority above all other political issues.”