Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir on Thursday expressed concern over the current situation in Lebanon and called on Lebanese to be vigilant.

In an interview with Voice of Lebanon, Sfeir said he hoped for a better situation in Lebanon.

Mustaqbal MP Ahmed Fatfat on Thursday said Hizbullah is the only group that can ignite street tensions.

"Stability is a permanent need," Fatfat told Radio Free Lebanon.

Abdullah Azzam Brigades called on Sunnis in Lebanon to reject Hizbullah's dominance

Abdullah Azzam Brigades on Thursday called on Sunnis in Lebanon to reject Hizbullah's dominance.

Hizbullah's number two Sheikh Naim Qassem said Prime Minister Saad Hariri is responsible for stopping the "mockery" of accusations against Hizbullah in his father's assassination.

"All possibilities are open" if the indictment was issued before reaching a solution, Qassem said in an interview published Thursday by al-Balad newspaper.

The Council of Maronite Bishops on Wednesday urged the Lebanese to pray for rain and said the paralysis in constitutional institutions are signs of weaknesses in national will.

“Paralysis in constitutional institutions and waiting for external solutions are signs of weaknesses in national will,” Monsignor Youssef Toq said following the bishops’ monthly meeting.

President Michel Suleiman on Thursday launched a fresh effort to break the Government deadlock.

He kicked off talks by meeting separately Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel and Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has said he supported President Michel Suleiman’s efforts to activate state institutions.

“We back him in his effort to revive dialogue and hold cabinet meetings,” Jumblat, who is on a private visit to Poland, told An Nahar daily during a telephone conversation.

Egypt's spy master revealed his service recruited agents in Iraq and Syria to counter Iranian support for militants in his country, according to U.S. diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks.

Omar Suleiman told U.S. top military commander Admiral Michael Mullen in a 2009 meeting that Iran had tried to recruit Bedouins to smuggle weapons into Hamas-controlled Gaza and that Egyptian security had rounded up a cell of Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hizbullah.

The Lebanese government is increasingly "subordinate" to Iran and Syria, who have been helping Hizbullah rearm, a top U.S. lawmaker told U.N. special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen.

Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the diplomat on Tuesday that she was "concerned" U.S. and U.N. efforts in Lebanon were failing to counter Hizbullah's growing power.

Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Ali al-Moqdad stated on Tuesday that the international investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is an intelligence tool aimed at harming the Resistance.

He told MTV that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is aimed at creating Sunni-Shiite strife, adding that its indictment has lost credibility in Lebanon.