Traffic that was halted for 35 days at the northern entrance of the southern city of Sidon resumed on Thursday after Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir’s supporters removed their sit-in tents.

LBC TV said that some personal belongings were still being removed from the streets.

Syrian shells hit at dawn Thursday an area in the northern district of Akkar that lies six kilometers away from the Lebanese-Syrian border, injuring two people, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said this was the first time that shells hit an area relatively far from Lebanon’s northern border.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati expressed relief on Thursday on the success of the authorities in resolving several crises gripping Lebanon, in particular the demands of the Syndicate Coordination Committee and Electricite du Liban’s contract workers.

“The recent crises seemed they were undermining the state’s authority, but I had as a premier to choose between resolving them by using force or calmly,” Miqati told An Nahar newspaper.

The president of a European country has advised Lebanese political parties from across the political spectrum not to object the division of Lebanon into a Switzerland-like federation, Speaker Nabih Berri revealed on Thursday.

Berri told al-Akhbar daily in an interview that he has received unconfirmed information about the head of state’s advice that was made around 15 days ago.

Lebanon deported 14 Syrians on Wednesday despite the raging violence over the border, drawing criticism from human rights activists.

The Lebanese authorities said the reasons for the expulsions were not political but a Human Rights Watch representative in Beirut said some of the deportees had expressed fears of persecution on their return.

Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir, the imam of Sidon’s Bilal bin Rabah Mosque, on Wednesday agreed to end a sit-in protesting Hizbullah’s arms that lasted for more than a month after reaching an agreement with Interior Minister Marwan Charbel.

“Reopening the road in Sidon is a gift on the occasion of Army Day,” Charbel said at the site of the sit-in in Sidon.

Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday called on the national dialogue committee to agree on a “liberation strategy” as well as on a defense strategy, accusing the rival March 14 camp of “blackmail.”

Recalling recent remarks by MP Mohammed Raad, head of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc, Nasrallah said “remarks about a liberation strategy are not new.”

The Syndicate Coordination Committee on Wednesday said it hold a meeting this afternoon to take a final decision on whether or not to resume correcting official exam papers after it received a “promise” from Education Minister Hassan Diab on approving the new wages scale by the end of the month.

Briefing reporters after a meeting headed by Prime Minister Najib Miqati at the Grand Serail for the ministerial committee tasked with studying the new wages scale, Health Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said endorsing the new scale for all employees requires further meetings.

The Maronite bishops council warned on Wednesday of an economic collapse in Lebanon given the state’s failure in meeting the needs of the private and public institutions.

They blamed the current situation on poor economic policies since the end of the Lebanese civil war, the increase in corruption, and “the loss of the state’s decision-making power given the deep political divisions.”

Prime Minister Najib Miqati promised on Wednesday his government’s approval of a $1.6 billion four-year plan to improve the capabilities of the Lebanese army.

“The cabinet, which is working on meeting the needs of the military, is on the verge of approving a $1.6 billion plan divided to four years to improve its capabilities,” Miqati said in a statement he issued on the occasion of Army Day.