Supporters of Islamist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir were assaulted by an angry mob in the Zoqaq al-Blat-Salim Salam area on Sunday.

Around 2:30 p.m., soon after the end of an Islamist sit-in at the nearby Martyrs Square at which Asir delivered a speech, dozens of young men from the Zoqaq al-Blat neighborhood blocked the Salim Salam highway and started subjecting the passing vehicles to identity checks, a Naharnet reporter witnessed.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Sunday accused Hizbullah of receiving orders from Iran to send fighters to Syria.

In an interview on Al-Jazeera, Jumblat also said “the Lebanese government has failed in implementing the self-dissociation policy, which prompted March 14 parties to fight on the side of the Syrian people."

Demonstrators marched to Ein el-Tineh on Sunday to call for putting a draft-law that protects women against domestic violence on the agenda of the joint parliamentary committees.

The protesters, mostly women, marched from al-Sanayeh public garden towards Speaker Nabih Berri's residence under the slogan of “My Life is More Important than Your Posts.”

Hundreds of protesters demanded on Sunday that trial procedures be accelerated for Islamist prisoners, who have been held in Roumieh prison without charge since 2007, and vowed an uprising and “vengeance” against the authorities.

“We ask today for justice or else let them (officials) burn in hell,” they said at the protest held in downtown Beirut's Martyrs Square.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday criticized the procrastination of the government in referring the new wage scale for the public sector to the parliament and urged politicians for some soul-searching over the proliferation of illegitimate arms and the controversial electoral law.

“Are your consciences clear to the strike of teachers and the closure of schools?” al-Rahi asked politicians in his sermon.

President Michel Suleiman on Sunday urged the “Syrian side” to refrain from opening fire and shelling Lebanon after two Lebanese were killed on the northern border with Syria.

Suleiman “expressed regret” at the death of Lebanese from “military operations near the Lebanese border,” said a statement issued by Baabda palace.

A security official lamented on Sunday that security forces haven't yet received the so-called telecom data despite the cabinet's decision to allow Premier Najib Miqati to approve or reject requests for the data.

In remarks to An Nahar newspaper, the source said the procrastination in handing the data to the Internal Security Forces was hindering the work of the police and the army in several cases, including the recent abduction of a schoolboy.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat said Sunday that his National Struggle Front and al-Mustaqbal bloc were coordinating efforts to reach consensus on an electoral draft-law that is reportedly based on a hybrid system.

In remarks to An Nahar daily, Jumblat said: “We and al-Mustaqbal movement are coordinating to achieve a consensual draft-law.”

Gemayel Defends Orthodox Plan for Guaranteeing Partnership, Says Not in Confrontation with Suleiman

Phalange leader Amin Gemayel reiterated on Sunday his support for the so-called Orthodox Gathering proposal but said his party was willing to approve several electoral draft-laws on condition they guarantee the best representation for Christians.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati reportedly postponed a trip to Romania over the security tension in Lebanon and the large-scale consultations between rival parties to agree on an electoral draft-law.

An Nahar newspaper said Sunday that Miqati postponed his official visit to Bucharest that was set to be made on March 8.