Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah expressed pride in the party’s ties with Iran and slammed Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri for allegedly “making a big mistake” in harming Lebanon’s relations with Tehran.

“We are proud of our relationship and alliance with Iran and Syria,” Nasrallah said in a statement broadcast on television on Saturday night.

President Michel Suleiman stressed on Saturday the need for calming the political rhetoric in Lebanon and returning to dialogue.

He said: “Internal affairs can only be settled through dialogue, cooperation, and national consensus.”

The Lebanese Foreign Ministry delegation, headed by foreign ministry director general Haitham Joumaa, began on Saturday evacuating Lebanese expatriates in the Ivory Coast from Abidjan airport to the airport in Ghana’s capital Accra.

Joumaa informed the National News Agency in a telephone call from Abidjan airport that a Boeing 737 has been rented to transport 200 passengers to Accra over a two-phase operation.

Head of the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Political-Military Affairs department Amos Gilad has reportedly said that U.S. support for the Lebanese army will weaken Israel.

“A strengthened Lebanese army hurts Israel,” Gilad stressed.

The daily An Nahar reported on Saturday that the latest government structure that was agreed upon called for granting Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun ten ministers, President Michel Suleiman and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat eleven, and the rest of the March 8 camp nine ministers.

The Interior Ministry portfolio would be granted to a figure agreed upon by all sides and who is not affiliated with any of the political powers.

The European Union's ambassador to Lebanon, Angelina Eichhorst revealed that she had met with Hizbullah officials who informed her of the party’s positions on international resolutions on Lebanon.

She told the daily An Nahar in remarks published on Saturday that the U.N. Security Council resolutions cannot be addressed selectively, but they should be viewed as a whole package.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat voiced his annoyance with the renewal of the political and media dispute between Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Hizbullah.

He told the daily An Nahar in remarks published on Saturday: “Based on my experience with Hizbullah and the Shiite sect, Hariri must understand the party’s cultural and ideological structure and its connection with Wilayat al-Faqih.”

Observers noted on Saturday that the dispute between Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Iran will be limited to the Lebanese internal scene, stressing that Lebanon will not succumb to the regional tensions.

A prominent political source told the daily An Nahar in remarks published on Saturday that what appears to be a dispute over Lebanese-Iranian ties in fact stems back to the Saudi-Syrian initiative that was aimed at ending the Lebanese political crisis, which it turned out Iran had obstructed.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast slammed on Friday caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri's recent position on Iran, which he said only serves U.S. and Israel's interests, reported Press TV.

Addressing Hariri, Mehmanparast said that with a proper understanding of the lessons of the popular uprisings in the Arab countries of the Middle East, "[you] should consider the criteria for ruling people as respecting their dignity and independence, as well as avoiding dependence on the West, particularly the U.S. and Zionism."

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri telephoned Bahraini King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa on Friday stressing to him Lebanon’s support to the Kingdom’s sovereignty and stability.

He urged him not to consider any position taken by any political group in Lebanon as being the stance of the Lebanese state or its people.