Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi has blasted Premier Najib Miqati and Economy Minister Nicolas Nahhas for accusing him of seeking to take commissions in the deal to lease power-generating vessels.

Safadi challenged Miqati on Thursday, telling LBC’s Kalam al-Nass talk show that the prime minister should remove him from his post if any investigation proved that he had been seeking a commission.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Thursday that the rival domestic and regional camp “has an interest” in eliminating him from the political scene, noting that his “attempt to put the Christians at the heart of the Arab Spring is an additional factor in the assassination attempt” he escaped last week.

“I changed my lifestyle after the assassination attempt to prevent the perpetrators from making another bid,” Geagea said in an interview on Al-Arabiya.

A dispute in the Beirut suburb of Shiyah-Ghobeiri between the families of Fadel and al-Masri erupted into an armed clash on Thursday, leaving two people wounded, state-run National News Agency reported.

The two were stabbed with knives, the agency said.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi noted on Thursday that Christians in the Arab world are among the “native” residents of their respective countries in that they have lived there since biblical times, stressing that their practices have become an integral part of the peoples of each state.

He said: “They should not be viewed as minorities, but as native people who have enjoyed equal rights with all others.”

Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui noted on Thursday that the Lebanese people have “no idea of the large amount of information” that is stored in the telecom data.

He said after holding talks with Speaker Nabih Berri: “Whoever acquires the data can spy on everyone in Lebanon.”

Israel will attack Lebanese government targets during a future war with Hizbullah, a senior defense official said, lamenting that the Jewish State did not do so during the 2006 aggression on Lebanon.

“It was a mistake not to attack Lebanese government targets during the war in 2006,” The Jerusalem Post quoted a senior defense official as saying. “We will not be able to hold back from doing so in a future war.”

Security sources have slammed a decision by a judicial authority to prevent the Internal Security Forces from accessing telecommunications records, saying the security of the people was more important than their privacy.

“What’s more important? The security of the people or their privacy?” the sources wondered in remarks to An Nahar daily published Thursday.

The union of bakeries has announced a strike for April 20, a day after a planned transportation strike over record high gasoline prices.

Economy Minister Nicolas Nahhas’ “promises have vanished with regard to compensating the sector and resolving its problems,” the union said in a statement.

The Israeli navy has recently strengthened its “indirect cooperation” with the Lebanese navy in the Mediterranean ahead of possible pro-Palestinian flotillas to Gaza on Nakba Day, Haaretz daily reported.

The Lebanese army increased its naval operations and barred any ship from approaching the maritime border with Israel, to prevent any possible provocations on Land Day on March 30, Haaretz said.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea told March 14 opposition officials that Christians in Lebanon would have suffered from the consequences of his assassination if snipers succeeded in killing him.

Al-Liwaa daily on Thursday quoted Geagea as saying in his address to the officials during their large-scale meeting at his residence in Maarab that “March 14 is in the eye of the storm.”