Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat reportedly said immediately after the end of the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah that if the Jewish state pulled out from occupied Lebanese territories, it would abolish an essential pressure point off the Shiite group.

Israel “is speeding up the withdrawal,” Jumblat said during a meeting dated August 15, 2006, according to a WikiLeaks cable published by al-Akhbar newspaper on Thursday.

Caretaker Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar said on Thursday that threats about the prosecution of some March 14 officials over WikiLeaks cables had political rather than legal dimensions.

“No one is taking the minutes (of the alleged meetings), there are no accurate dates, the content isn’t precise, and the translation” isn’t checked, Najjar told al-Mustaqbal newspaper in remarks published Thursday.

The latest visits of Lebanese officials to Damascus to discuss the draft government lineup with the Assad regime will most likely help in the formation of the cabinet soon.

Syrian President Bashar Assad held talks with Marada Movement leader Suleiman Franjieh on Wednesday. The Syrian leader also met with Premier-designate Najib Miqati’s brother Taha on Monday.

The kidnapping of seven Estonians brought back fears about the resumption of abductions that were common during the 1975-90 Lebanese civil war amid reports that the men could have been snatched to be used as a bargaining chip for a Palestinian recently arrested in Ukraine.

The Estonian tourists cycling in the eastern Bekaa Valley were kidnapped on Wednesday by armed men.

Hundreds of Palestinian refugees seeking better medical services on Wednesday forced the shutdown of two U.N. offices in southern Lebanon and staged a sit-in to press their demands.

About 500 refugees converged on the UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees) office in the coastal town of Tyre and asked employees to leave the premises before erecting a tent outside the building and holding a sit-in, an Agence France Presse correspondent witnessed.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad held talks Wednesday in Damascus with Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh, Syria's state-run news agency SANA reported.

Talks tackled "the efforts being exerted to form a new Lebanese cabinet and the situations in the Arab region," according to SANA.

Seven Estonian tourists biking in the eastern Bekaa Valley were kidnapped on Wednesday by armed men who bundled them into two vans and drove off, a security official told Agence France Presse.

He said the Estonians had crossed into Lebanon earlier from Syria and were intercepted at about 5:30 pm (1530 GMT) by two white vans and a dark Mercedes 300 with no license plates in the industrial part of Zahle.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly on Wednesday held talks with the board of directors of the Association of Bankers in Lebanon (ABL).

Connelly reiterated to the ABL members that “the recent action taken by the U.S. Treasury to designate the Lebanese Canadian Bank (LCB) as a financial institution of primary money laundering concern under Section 311 of the Patriot Act came as a result of a long-term criminal investigation,” the U.S. Embassy said.

President Michel Suleiman stressed on Wednesday that the constitution is clear in defining how governments are formed.

He said: “Attempts to interpret it in another way it are aimed at thwarting the formation, similar to what happened in the formation process of past governments.”

Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Wednesday the need to speed up the government formation in order to achieve Lebanon’s interests.

He said during his weekly meeting with his parliamentary bloc that a national salvation cabinet should be formed soon to confront the major internal and external challenges facing Lebanon.