Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Friday launched a vehement attack against the entire political class in Lebanon, accusing it of “conspiring” against the ministers of the Change and Reform bloc.

“I accuse the entire (political) system of conspiring against us and this intimidation will not scare us. We accuse everyone and let those accusing us demonstrate their evidences. We have the documents to prove that they are thieves,” Aoun said at a meeting with FPM coordinators in Sin el-Fil.

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel stressed on Friday the need to confront terrorism and instead bolster openness, dialogue, and understanding.

He said during the launch of the International Union of the Centrist Democratic Parties: “A resistance that does not contribute to the construction of the state cannot be considered legitimate.”

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon ad interim Robert Watkins said Friday that he discussed with Hizbullah official Ammar Moussawi the requirements of Security Council resolution 1701 that “still have to be met.”

Following his talks with Moussawi, who is the head of Hizbullah’s international relations department, Watkins said: “We discussed the areas where 1701 has worked very well so far, including the relative stability that has prevailed in south Lebanon, but also the requirements of 1701 that still have to be met in order to be able to move from the current cessation of hostilities to a permanent ceasefire.”

The Mustaqbal Movement praised on Friday the Syrian National Council’s open letter to the Lebanese people, especially regarding its proposal to review Lebanese-Syrian agreements and demarcate the border between the two countries.

It said in a statement: “The council’s brave step will pave the way for a new chapter of ties between Lebanon and Syria.”

A rain-triggered mudslide blocked a road in the Metn town of Beit Mery on Friday morning, causing bumper-to-bumper traffic during rush hour.

The town’s municipality reopened the road a few hours after the incident which had blocked the traffic on the Beit Mery-Monteverde road leading to Beirut.

Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas said on Friday that the wage hike decree issued as an annex in the official gazette is aimed at activating it before the end of this month.

“Accelerating the release of the decree was aimed at including the wage hike in January’s salaries,” Nahhas stressed to As Safir newspaper on Friday.

Syrian authorities have said in their official report on the probe into the death of a 16-year-old Lebanese fisherman that his boat was in Syrian territorial waters when he was shot, informed sources told An Nahar daily published Friday.

The sources said that the head of the Higher Syrian-Lebanese Council, Nasri Khoury, handed over the report to President Michel Suleiman on Thursday.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare didn’t disclose during his meetings with Lebanese senior officials if Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen will issue new indictments in the attacks on the three officials that have been linked to ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s murder, As Safir newspaper reported on Friday.

Later on Friday, Bellemare, accompanied by his team, visited the office of State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza where he met with MP Marwan Hamadeh, journalist May Chidiac and Suzy Madayan, the widow of slain former Communist party chief George Hawi.

The deadlock on judicial appointments hasn’t been solved yet as President Michel Suleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun continue to hold onto their own candidates for the post of the head of the Higher Judicial Council.

An Nahar daily quoted Suleiman’s visitors as saying on Friday that the appointments should not be in a state of stalemate under any excuse. “Differences of opinion should not prevent the process of necessary appointments in the state.”

Israel's former army chief Gabi Ashkenazi said Thursday that no Sunni-led government will ever go as far with Iran and Hizbullah as Syrian President Bashar Assad did.

During the conference, which was organized by the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv University, the former army chief said that “there were vast and untrue estimates stating that the primary country equipping Hizbullah with weapons is Iran, while the truth was that Syria is equipping Hizbullah.”