Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stressed on Saturday that his visit to the United States is simply a pastoral one.

He said: “I am not a man of politics or a man of state.”

Prime Minister Najib Miqati voiced fears that the deterioration of the situation in Syria will have dangerous repercussions in the region, reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday from the Wall Street Journal.

He added that such a deterioration will also place Lebanon in a precarious position.

Marada Movement leader MP Suleiman Franjieh praised on Friday Syrian President Bashar Assad’s perseverance in the face of adversity, crediting him for maintaining the region’s Arab identity.

Security forces are intensifying their efforts to curb drug abuse and smuggling in southern Lebanon amid reports that the smugglers are using water pipes to hide the illegal substance.

The Central News Agency reports that water pipe delivery services are being used as a cover to smuggle drugs as the illegal substances are delivered via motorcycles to users.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun underwent routine medical checkups at the Hotel Dieu Hospital in Ashrafieh in Beirut on Friday.

Witnesses told Naharnet that the MP was seen exiting the hospital at around 3:30 pm on Friday.

A congressional delegation arrived in Lebanon on Friday where it held talks with a number of officials including President Michel Suleiman, said the U.S. Embassy in a statement.

It traveled to Lebanon as part of a broader Middle East mission and a continuation of the partnership between the U.S. Congress and the Lebanese parliament, it stated.

Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Friday the importance of Palestinian national unity given the talk of the recognition of an independent Palestinian state.

He said upon his arrival in Tehran to take part in the fifth international conference to support the Palestinian intifada: “It’s important to reveal to the world the conspiracies being plotted against the Palestinian cause.”

Deputy Commissioner of the New South Wales Police Nick Kaldas slammed Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s alleged accusations that he was a “stooge for Israel and the CIA” while investigating the assassination of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

“They’re very, very hurtful, damaging allegations. No evidence whatsoever has been put up by him,” Nick Kaldas told SBS journalist Yaara Bou Melhem.

A meeting was held between members of the Lebanese Democratic Party, the Progressive Socialist Party and Hizbullah at the residence of LDP leader MP Talal Arslan in Khalde, a statement said Friday.

The statement said that Wafiq Safa and Bilal Dagher represented Hizbullah while MP Akram Shehayyeb and Salah al-Btedini attended the meeting on behalf of Walid Jumblat’s PSP.

Seven masked gunmen broke into the home of al-Mustaqbal official Amer al-Mohammed in the region of Wadi Khaled in Akkar on Thursday night with the intention of abducting him, the National News Agency reported.

But when the men entered the home in the town of al-Amayer, they realized that al-Mohammed was not there, NNA said.