Speaker Nabih Berri is continuing to work on his dialogue initiative despite the negative indications and he is receiving written answers from the heads of the parliamentary blocs, a media report said.

“Berri has sent official messages to the Strong Republic and Strong Lebanon blocs,” al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Saturday, referring to the parliamentary blocs of the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Friday stressed that it is “unacceptable” for authorities to say that they have been prevented from continuing the probe into the abduction and killing of LF member Elias Hasrouni.

Ex-MP Walid Jumblat’s latest unusual attack on Saudi Arabia came because he knew months ago that its ambassador in Beirut, Walid Bukhari, was behind the stances and “escalation” of some political forces, informed sources said.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi re-iterated Friday his call for Lebanon's neutrality, during his visit to Australia.

Al-Rahi expressed his fear for Lebanon's "positive" neutrality, "which is at the core of its identity and would keep it away from regional and international conflicts."

Washington, Riyadh and Doha have voiced a unified stance rejecting the continuation of the French efforts in the Lebanese presidential file, a media report said.

A Qatari envoy has arrived in Lebanon to help break the presidential impasse, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri confirmed to Nidaa al-Watan newspaper, in remarks published Friday.

"It is true that there is a Qatari initiative," Berri assured, adding that the envoy has not talked to him yet.

Hamas member Khalil Abou Maazeh has been arrested in Sidon by the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch on suspicion of collaborating with Israel, a media report said.

Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab is preparing a parliamentary petition to dissolve parliament as an exit from the country’s presidential crisis, Lebanese MPs told Kuwait’s al-Anbaa newspaper in remarks published Friday.

Lebanese security agencies are investigating a late-night shooting outside the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy just north of Beirut. No one was hurt in the small-arms fire.

The shots erupted near the entrance to the embassy compound in Beirut's northeastern suburb of Awkar on Wednesday night. No one claimed responsibility for the shooting and the motives behind it were not known.

Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat was not pleased by the result of the latest 5-nation group meeting on Lebanon in New York. "Some are playing with the Lebanese," Jumblat told L'Orient-Le Jour newspaper, a day after the meeting.

The group -- which comprises the U.S., France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt -- had convened Tuesday at the U.N. headquarters in New York but failed to issue a statement because of disagreements between its members.