President Michel Suleiman congratulated on Friday the Lebanese army for uncovering the Israeli spy system in the southern town of Shamaa on Thursday.

He said: “The discovery once again exposes Israel’s ongoing violation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 and Lebanon’s sovereignty before the international community.”

Internal Security Forces arrested a top Lebanese drug trafficker during a raid in Beirut’s southern suburbs at dawn Friday, the ISF general-directorate said in a statement.

It said an ISF patrol arrested the trafficker, identified by his initials as A. Aa., during a raid on his house in Bourj al-Barajneh.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat did not deny on Friday the recent WikiLeaks report that quoted him as saying he hoped Israel would continue its assault on Lebanon during the July 2006 war in order to weaken Hizbullah militarily.

The MP said: “I take full responsibility for these statements that are a dark mark in my political career and I hope my position today would eliminate any harm I may have caused the Resistance, Syria, and the noble resistance fighters.”

The head of Hizbullah's parliamentary bloc MP Mohammed Raad expressed hope on Friday that the party would resume dialogue with Bkirki and consolidate ties.

Raad visited Bkirki at the head of a Hizbullah delegation to congratulate Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on his election.

The Lebanese Ambassador to the Ivory Coast Ali Ajami assured that the Lebanese expatriates in the African country are safe and they are not being targeted in the violence.

He told As Safir in remarks published on Friday: “The situation is difficult and worrying, but it is not as dramatic as the media is making it seem.”

MP Marwan Hamadeh accused Defense Minister Elias Murr of “playing on both sides of the fence” in the political divide on Lebanon, said a leaked U.S. Embassy cable published exclusively in Al-Akhbar on Friday.

He said in the August 1, 2006, WikiLeaks cable that Murr believed that Hizbullah would be victorious in a Lebanese civil war and “he is trying to save himself politically on the internal scene that would be established after a war.”

Former Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir has reportedly informed ex-U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman during the 2006 war about his concern over displaced Shiites, saying they should return to their homes.

According to a WikiLeaks cable published by al-Akhbar daily on Friday, Sfeir expressed his concern over Shiites fleeing the bombing in the south and residing in Beirut and Mount Lebanon during a meeting with Feltman in Bkirki on August 3, 2006.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea believed that turning Hizbullah into an internal Lebanese problem will pave the way to its disarmament, revealed a leaked U.S. Embassy cable published exclusively in Al-Akhbar on Friday.

Dated July 25, 2006, the WikiLeaks cable also quoted Geagea as saying that a ceasefire in the July 2006 war that does not call for the party’s disarmament will “inevitably lead to the renewal of the hostilities between Hizbullah and Israel.”

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon held a ceremony at the mission headquarters in Naqoura on Friday to mark the 33rd anniversary of its presence in southern Lebanon, UNIFIL said in a statement.

Peacekeepers representing the 34 contingents that make up UNIFIL participated in the ceremony. Attending were representatives from the Lebanese armed and security forces, local mayors, community officials, as well as senior diplomats, the statement said.

UNIFIL Commander Maj. Gen. Alberto Asarta has confirmed that the peacekeepers protested to Israel’s Northern Command the pelting with stones on international troops from the other side of the border.

The stones thrown at peacekeepers from the Israeli side across the technical fence and the Blue Line on Wednesday and Thursday were “isolated incidents that could happen at any time,” Asarta told As Safir daily in remarks published Friday.