Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Roknabadi stressed on Saturday that contacts are ongoing to release the 11 abducted Lebanese pilgrims in the Syrian province of Aleppo.

“The important thing is that they are safe and we hope that they would be released soon,” Roknabadi told reporters after holding talks with Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun in his residence in Rabieh.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati urged Lebanese leaders on Saturday to attend the National Dialogue session scheduled to convene on June 11, stressing that stability requires the resumption of all-party talks.

“We have to maintain Lebanon's stability through the resumption of the national dialogue,” Miqati told reporters.

Secretary-General of the Arab Democratic Party Rifaat Eid said Saturday that two Lebanese farmers, who were kidnapped by Syrian forces in al-Abboudiyeh earlier this week, will be released soon.

“Mohammed Yassine al-Merehbi and Mehdi Hamdan will be in Lebanon in the next few hours,” he said after his party mediated for their release.

A day before his scheduled visit to Kuwait, President Michel Suleiman said Saturday that the Lebanese are anxiously waiting for Kuwaiti tourists this summer.

In an interview with the Kuwait News Agency, KUNA, Suleiman said: “The Lebanese will not forget the support of the Kuwaiti emir, the government and the people.”

March 14 general-secretariat coordinator Fares Soaid said Saturday that Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s statements dealt a blow to President Michel Suleiman’s invitation for dialogue.

Nasrallah called on Friday for the creation of an elected or appointed constituent assembly to build a strong state and end sectarian divisions. He urged Suleiman to weigh the creation of such an assembly during the National Dialogue that is set to be held at Baabda palace on June 11.

A Syrian priest was hospitalized in the eastern Lebanese city of Zahle after suffering injuries in the Syrian town of al-Qusair, in Homs province, during a gunfight between troops and rebels, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said Father Elia Mikhael Jreij, 33, was admitted to Tal Shiha hospital in Zahle to treat the gunshot wound in his left leg.

President Michel Suleiman said he hasn’t pressured al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri to respond to him on an invitation for the National Dialogue at Baabda Palace set for June 11.

In remarks to As Safir daily published Saturday, Suleiman said: “I didn’t ask him to attend the dialogue session but discussions focused on the advantages and the disadvantages of the National Dialogue.”

A meeting was held on Friday away from the media spotlight between Premier Najib Miqati, Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, the political aide of the Hizbullah leader, Hussein Khalil, and Energy Minister Jebran Bassil.

The meeting between Miqati and the three men from the March 8 majority coalition was aimed at averting a government crisis after Miqati gave an ultimatum to cabinet ministers to resolve the controversial funding of state projects by next Wednesday.

Twelve people were killed and more than 40 people were injured in renewed clashes between the Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhoods of the northern city of Tripoli, Beirut media reported on Saturday.

Among the dead were a woman and her son, killed by a rocket in the Bab al-Tebanneh district, a mostly Sunni Muslim community which supports Syria's anti-regime opposition.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Friday met with a delegation representing the families of 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims abducted in Syria on May 22, in the presence of Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour and MPs Ali Ammar and Ghazi Zoaiter.

After the meeting, Ammar said “PM Miqati and Minister Mansour briefed us about their contacts and discussions with Turkish authorities concerning the case of the Lebanese abductees in Syria.”