Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Tuesday noted that embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had “launched reforms in March” in his revolt-hit country, calling for “closing all doors and windows in the face of the foreign plots against the Levant.”

Addressing a Syrian delegation from the coastal city of Tartous that visited him in Bkirki, al-Rahi said: “Together with you, we are looking forward to the implementation of the vital constitutional reforms Syria is in need of, and I know that the president launched those reforms in March.”

The Mustaqbal bloc condemned on Tuesday Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn’s statements last week that al-Qaida members had infiltrated the Bekaa town of Arsal and then headed to Syria, saying that he should not issue such claims without basing them on facts.

The bloc said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “We will resort to all possible democratic and parliamentary measures to hold the minister accountable for his accusations.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun revealed on Tuesday that armed individuals had infiltrated Lebanon in the east, indirectly implying that they had arrived from Syria.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “We will support Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s position on the possession of arms in Lebanon when the time comes.”

A delegation of Beirut MPs held talks on Tuesday with Prime Minister Najib Miqati on the need to establish an arms-free Beirut.

MP Ammar Houri revealed after the meeting that the premier had requested the concerned security forces to devise a plan on achieving this goal.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea returned to Beirut on Tuesday from his trip to Riyadh where he held talks with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and a number of high-ranking Saudi officials, said the LF media department in a statement.

Geagea and Hariri held lengthy and comprehensive talks on the situation in Lebanon and the region, it added.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said that Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn will inform the cabinet on Wednesday about the investigations carried out by the army over the alleged presence of al-Qaida members in the eastern border town of Arsal.

In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3), Charbel said that Ghosn’s allegations about the operations of al-Qaida fighters in the Arsal area should be “taken into consideration.”

Prime Minister Najib Miqati will head to Paris on January, 7 to meet with President Nicolas Sarkozy, his French counterpart Francois Fillon and other senior officials, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Tuesday.

According to the daily, the premier will discuss the latest developments in the region and Lebanon, bilateral ties and the future of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

Revered Lebanese spiritual leader Moussa al-Sadr, who went missing in Libya in 1978, died in the prison that he was detained at, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The report said that al-Sadr died of natural causes in the summer of 1998, while he was detained at Libya’s capital central prison in an underground cell.

A delegation from the eastern border town of Arsal visited Premier Najib Miqati on Tuesday to condemn accusations that the village is harboring al-Qaida militants.

The delegation to the Grand Serail, led by Municipal Council chief Ali al-Hujairi, urged Miqati to deploy troops near the town along the border with Syria.

The crisis on the wage hike was in a standstill on Tuesday amid speculation about the decision of the Shura Council that is expected to be issued ahead of a cabinet session scheduled to be held at Baabda palace on Wednesday.

Ministerial sources told An Nahar newspaper that if the decision of the Shura Council was in favor of the cabinet’s latest approval of the salary boost, then the problem would exacerbate amid the rejection of the Economic Committees of the wage increase which they said would lead to layoffs and closures of businesses.