Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi urged on Sunday the political leaders in Lebanon to speed up the government formation process.

He said in his Sunday sermon: “We hope they would immediately help the country out of the crisis through the formation of a Cabinet that would only work towards bolstering the dignity of the Lebanese people.”

Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Nawwaf Moussawi stressed on Sunday the need to speed up the government formation process in order to save the country from the March 14 camp’s “destructive agenda.”

“The main motivation behind the government change was to prevent the March 14 camp from leading the country towards sectarian strife over the indictment in the investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri,” he said.

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel announced that the party’s MPs would be willing to participate in the June 8 parliamentary session on condition that its schedule be restricted to the topic of extending the term of Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh.

This position was revealed a couple of days after he had met with Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Thursday night as part of the MP’s “centrist” efforts to overcome the obstacles in the government formation.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati’s meeting on Saturday with Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s advisor, Huessin Khalil, was limited to generalities over the rules that need to be adopted in the formation of the new government, reported the daily An Nahar Sunday.

It added that Miqati has not yet received from Hizbullah and Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun their ministerial candidates.

Speaker Nabih Berri’s advisor, MP Ali Hasan Khalil, boycotted on Saturday the latest “mediatory” meeting with Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati, leaving it up to Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s advisor, Hussein Khalil, to complete the mission of holding talks with Miqati to remove obstacles hindering the government formation.

Berri reportedly left his Ain al-Tineh residence in Beirut and headed to the South on Friday without meeting with the premier-designate as was scheduled after the later issued a statement announcing that he will not take part in the June 8 parliamentary session that the speaker had called for.

Some 700 Syrians and Lebanese staged a rally in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Saturday to show their support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian residents of Lebanon organized the demonstration in the southern suburb of Hay al-Sellum, a bastion of Hizbullah, to display their support for Assad and his late father and predecessor, Hafez al-Assad.

The Higher Islamic Council on Saturday voiced concern over the delay in the formation of the cabinet and called for the respect of decisions taken by the government.

After its weekly meeting at Dar al-Fatwa, the council reiterated the need to remain committed to nationalistic stances in terms of the preservation of national unity and the state and its constitutional institutions.

Five men have broken out of a detention center at Baabda’s Justice Palace, the state-run National News Agency said Saturday.

The five men made their escape at dawn Saturday after sawing a window with a sharp object, NNA said.

British Ambassador Frances Mary Guy hoped on Saturday that the cabinet would be formed soon and said that Lebanon is the most stable country in the Middle East.

During a tour to Hasbaya, Guy said: “This country is the most stable now in the region and it is badly in need for a government which we would like to see tomorrow or after tomorrow.”

Hizbullah accused the Untied States on Saturday of hindering the formation of the new Lebanese government and using the international tribunal as a tool to change the balance of power in the country.

Deputy head of Hizbullah’s executive council Sheikh Nabil Qaouq said: “The international tribunal has become a political tool in the local political balance of power that the U.S. and its followers in Lebanon are using to confront the current parliamentary majority.”