Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun is expected on Saturday to snap back at President Michel Suleiman, Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat and al-Mustaqbal movement at a rally that would set the stage for future campaigns by his party ahead of the 2013 parliamentary polls.

The FPM is organizing the rally at the Platea theater in Sahel Alma in Kesrouan district on the seventh anniversary of Aoun’s return from exile to Paris.

Speaker Nabih Berri has found no reason in postponing Thursday’s cabinet session and reiterated that he would hold the government accountable if it continues to procrastinate on decisions linked to oil exploration.

There was no justification in postponing the session “amid the circumstances and the strikes carried out by more than one sector,” An Nahar daily on Saturday quoted Berri as saying.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat has announced that he does not intend to rejoin the March 14 camp, slamming the Free Patriotic Movement as an “irrational” political movement that is “paralyzing everything.”

Commenting on his recent trip to Saudi Arabia in an interview to be published on Saturday, Jumblat hoped to restore his previous relation with the kingdom, saying Riyadh was dismayed by his support in 2011 for the nomination of Prime Minister Najib Miqati for premiership following the collapse of Saad Hariri’s government.

The debate flared up again on Friday between the Syrian and Saudi ambassadors to Lebanon over the issue of a Syria-bound arms ship recently seized in Lebanon’s territorial waters.

Syrian ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali declared on NBN television that he has severed ties with Saudi ambassador Ali Awadh Asiri, saying “he’s the one who dealt an unfriendly blow to a brotherly relation.”

An Israeli military unit crossed on Friday the Blue Line near the area of al-Shahil in Shebaa.

Al-Manar television reported that a shepherd in the area escaped a kidnapping attempt by Israeli troops.

President Michel Suleiman shrugged off on Thursday the pressure exerted on him by Hizbullah, Amal and the Free Patriotic Movement to sign the $5.9 billion extra-budgetary spending bill.

In remarks to reporters based in Baabda Palace, Suleiman reiterated his rejection to sign the bill that is set to legalize the spending of Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s government .

Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn said on Friday that progress has been achieved in the investigations in the arms smuggling ship that was intercepted off the Batroun coast a week ago.

He said in a statement: “The investigations should be allowed to take their course and the issue should not be the subject of political speculation.”

The Lebanese army arrested on Friday a man wanted in connection with clashes that took place a day before between two rival neighborhoods in the northern port city of Tripoli.

Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3) said an army unit seized Rami Issa after it came under intense fire in the area of al-Malouleh from Bab al-Tabbaneh gunmen, leaving one person injured.

Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin hailed on Friday the Lebanese army for intercepting the armed shipment in its territorial water.

“We hope that the probe would reveal those who are behind this criminal attempt,” Zasypkin told reporters after a meeting with Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour.

Opposition MP Butros Harb considered on Friday the photo that As Safir newspaper published on its front page as “evidence of the campaign staged by the March 8 forces on the March 14 coalition” over U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman’s visit to Beirut.

He mocked what he called a “caricature picturing him as bowing to Feltman,” noting that he was “welcoming the guest and directing him to his seat.”