Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun demanded on Tuesday that Speaker Nabih Berri convene parliament to hold a legislative session in order to approve a number of draft laws.

He said after the movement’s weekly meeting: “We resorted to Berri because he is the only authority in the matter.”

President Michel Suleiman hoped on Tuesday that stability would be completely restored in Syrian regions that witnessed protests recently in order that the reforms pledged by Syrian President Bashar Assad would be implemented.

He warned after holding talks with the Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali of the dangers of sectarian incitement in the Arab country being launched under the guise of demanding reform.

Government Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr on Tuesday charged nine people with assaulting security forces while they were seeking to end building violations in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The National News Agency said that Saqr charged the nine people, including one detainee, for confronting members of the Internal Security Forces and assaulting them while they were seeking to curb building violations in the area of Ouzai.

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed his great disgust with Lebanese officials’ preoccupation with the “futile” debate over the Interior Ministry portfolio, while completely ignoring the developments in the region.

He told As Safir newspaper in remarks published on Tuesday: “Any portfolio will be worthless if the regional instability hit Lebanon.”

Special Tribunal for Lebanon spokesperson Marten Youssef has reiterated that the court hasn’t set a maximum time limit for judge Daniel Fransen to confirm the indictment in ex-premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination case.

STL Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare filed an amended indictment on Friday based on further evidence in the probe into the 2005 killing of Hariri, the second such amendment since the first indictment filed in January.

Syrian citizens have continued to flee their country’s unrest by seeking refuge in the village of Wadi Khaled on Lebanon’s northern border with Syria, As Safir reported on Tuesday.

A number of Homs city residents spoke of their suffering to the newspaper and expressed their previous intentions to come as refugees to Lebanon. “The bad security conditions banned them from going out of their houses in Homs,” they said.

A spiritual summit that is scheduled to be held in Bkirki on Thursday is expected to focus on uncontroversial issues like coexistence, the national charter, “Lebanon as a message” and the internal situation, without addressing sensitive details, An Nahar newspaper reported.

The daily said on Tuesday that conferees will work on putting the final touches on the “Christian-Islamic Committee for Dialogue.”

Some sides in the March 14 forces have begun to wonder whether Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat’s latest position towards the new majority is a sign that he is leaving the camp, reported the daily An Nahar on Tuesday.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea noted that Jumblat “is becoming fed up with the current situation in Lebanon and I don’t know whether that will force him to change his political position.”

The latest stance of Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat drew mixed reactions but the bluntest attack came from the Free Patriotic Movement which urged him to give up his demands in the new cabinet.

“If Walid Jumblat was so disdainful, then let him give up the public works ministry first and withdraw his unprecedented demands,” FPM circles told As Safir daily in remarks published Tuesday.

Reports about the possible formation of a 14-member technocrat government began making the rounds again as a way to end the cabinet impasse with the least possible damage.

Al-Liwaa daily said Tuesday that Premier-designate Najib Miqati could resort to such an option after contacts aimed at ending the deadlock on the interior ministry portfolio did not lead to positive results.