Number-two Republican Senator Jon Kyl, a fierce critic of U.S. President Barack Obama's efforts to engage Syria, said Washington should call for Syrian leader Bashar Assad to step down for undermining Lebanon’s democracy and smuggling weapons to Hizbullah.

“We should not be fooled by his sacking of his government. This is still the same Assad who undermined Lebanese democracy, who worked with North Korea to develop a clandestine nuclear capability, and who smuggles arms to Hizbullah and lends support to Hamas,” Kyl said in a statement on Wednesday.

The father and brother of Wael Abbas, the alleged leader of the group that kidnapped seven Estonian tourists in the Bekaa Valley last week, are in the custody of the Internal Security Forces, ISF chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi said.

Earlier, the media had identified the ringleader as Darwish Khanjar.

Hizbullah denied on Thursday that it had trained Bahraini Shiite activists, saying it was only providing moral and political support to the opposition in the kingdom.

Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Hamad al-Khalifa said Wednesday that Shiite Bahrainis who have participated in the protests against the government “were trained in Lebanon.”

Premier-designate Najib Miqati has reportedly discussed the government formation process with Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the second meeting between the two officials since Miqati’s nomination on January 25.

Al-Akhbar and As Safir dailies said that the two men met on Tuesday night to discuss the obstacles facing the formation of the new cabinet.

A map of alleged Hizbullah installations provided to The Washington Post this week by Israeli military officials identifies more than 550 underground bunkers, 300 surveillance sites and 100 other facilities in southern Lebanon, the newspaper said.

“In releasing the map, the Israeli military appeared to be trying to preempt international criticism of any future offensive against the alleged sites, many of which are located in residential villages alongside hospitals, schools and even civilian homes,” the Post said.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Wednesday noted that Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun “does not want to retrieve the rights of the Christians, but rather to get the biggest share possible (in cabinet) in his quest for his lost role.”

“Let us suppose that we replaced (interior) minister Ziad Baroud with (energy and water) minister Jebran Bassil, would the rights of the Christians be restored? Would the naming of three or four neutral ministers by the president deprive the Christians of their rights?” Geagea wondered.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stated on Wednesday that the Lebanese people can no longer accept the delay in the government formation.

He said: “Everything has stopped functioning … Political and legislative life has been halted.”

Speaker Nabih Berri assured on Wednesday that the government formation is underway and “it will be formed sooner or later, but the timing has not been set yet.”

Addressing developments in Syria during his weekly parliamentary meeting, he said: “The situation in Syria was already stable and it will always stand as the fort of Arabism.”

The March 14 General Secretariat condemned on Wednesday attempts by some media outlets to involve Lebanon in Syria’s popular opposition movements, which claimed that some independence movements in Lebanon are inciting unrest in the Arab state.

It called on in a statement after its weekly meeting these outlets to cease their “rumors” which it believed are an attempt to employ the developments in the Arab world on the internal Lebanese political scene, demanding that legal action be taken against them.

President Michel Suleiman commended on Wednesday the security forces’ efforts in trying to uncover the sides behind the abduction of the seven Estonian cyclists in the Bekaa last week, as well as those behind the church bombing in Zahle on Sunday.

He stressed that the “security and maintaining civil peace and Lebanon’s external image are red lines” that should not be crossed, urging security and military officials to take strict measures with anyone violating them.