Speaker Nabih Berri threatened on Tuesday the government against failing to issue the decrees concerning the implementation of decisions reached on oil exploration.

As Safir newspaper reported that Berri warned to call on the parliament to convene to question the cabinet over its performance if it didn’t issue the decrees during a session scheduled to be held at Baabda palace on Wednesday.

Former premier Saad Hariri on Monday said the Arab League should seek a “no-fly zone” over revolt-hit Syria, stressing that “everything must be done” to stop what he called a “massacre.”

“The Arab League should go to the U.N. and (seek) a no-fly zone (over Syria) and if Russia vetoes (the resolution) then a joint force should be formed with Turkey,” Hariri said on the social networking website Twitter.

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel on Monday said the remarks voiced by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in his Christmas sermon were “in line with the principles Bkirki has endorsed since the year 2000 concerning the need to accomplish national sovereignty.”

Sovereignty “can only be achieved if power is in the hand of the state,” Gemayel said in an interview on MTV.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat condemned Monday what he called “the twin terrorist bombings” in Damascus, stressing the need for a “political solution” in revolt-hit Syria.

“Although the timing of the two bombings in Damascus raises several question marks given that it coincided with the arrival of the Arab team of observers, that does not mean that the PSP will not strongly deplore and condemn these terrorist bombings,” Jumblat said in his weekly column in his party’s mouthpiece Al-Anbaa.

Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn condemned on Monday the sides that criticized his recent statements that al-Qaida members had infiltrated the Bekaa town of Arsal, accusing them of attempting to question the loyalties of the Arsal residents.

He said in a statement: “My declarations last week were not a product of speculation, but they were based on information we received, which we thought was prudent to reveal to the public.”

Internal security forces at the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut arrested a 24-year-old Egyptian national after seizing two kilograms of narcotic pills from his bag, the National News Agency reported on Monday.

NNA said that the ISF found the pills after searching the traveler’s bag, who was identified as A.M.

Lebanese government officials should exert more efforts to distance Lebanon from the twin Damascus bombings that took place in the Syrian capital on Friday, otherwise the cabinet would appear to be adopting a lax approach in combating terrorism, reported the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper on Monday.

Widely informed sources told the newspaper that President Michel Suleiman’s statements on Lebanon’s rejection of terrorism was the first attempt to ease the government “embarrassment” in this issue.

Head of the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) Burhan Ghalioun denied on Monday that the collapse of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime will not lead to the deterioration of relations with Iran and Hizbullah.

“The relations with Iran and Hizbullah after the toppling of Assad will be normal and not strategic as they are right now,” Ghalioun told the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati is reportedly upset with the government’s decision to approve Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas’ proposals on the wage hike, sources close to the premier told the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah newspaper in remarks published on Monday.

They said that cabinet decision, which was led by the alliance between Hizbullah, AMAL, and the Free Patriotic Movement ministers, sought to send a message that this alliance is the true controller of the government and not Miqati.

Syrian helicopters on Sunday hovered over the outskirts of the Bekaa border town of Arsal before returning to the Syrian airspace, Future News TV reported.

For its part, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Syrian military aircraft flew over Syria’s border with Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. It did not elaborate.