Archbishop of Jbeil Beshara al-Rahi was on Tuesday elected the 77th Patriarch of Antioch for the Maronites to succeed Nasrallah Sfeir, Monsignor Youssef Toq announced from the seat of the church in Bkirki.

The election of al-Rahi, 71, will be celebrated during a mass on Friday, March 25 at 10:30 am on the feast of the Annunciation (eid al-beshara), Toq said.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun criticized the March 14 rally held on Sunday saying that the movement will be short lived and that its slogans against the resistance’s arms “lack longevity”.

He told As Safir in remarks published on Tuesday: “No matter what caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri does, he will realize that he won’t achieve anything because he is waging a losing battle.”

Spanish Ambassador Juan Carlos Gafo expected the Lebanese government to be formed soon and stressed his country’s support for the course of justice in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination case.

In remarks to An Nahar daily published Tuesday, Gafo said that Premier-designate Najib Miqati told him that the cabinet would be formed a few days after the rally at Martyrs Square on March 13.

The optimism about the possibility of forming the government this week began fading after media reports said that Lebanese leaders haven’t yet reached an agreement on the distribution of portfolios.

“The most complex obstacle impeding the formation of the cabinet until now is the interior ministry portfolio which requires further consultations and contacts,” a source following Premier-designate Najib Miqati’s efforts to form the government told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat in remarks published Tuesday.

The main objective of the March 14 coalition after Sunday’s rally was to establish a National Council and consolidate its parliamentary bloc, the alliance’s sources told An Nahar daily in remarks published Tuesday.

According to the sources, the current objective is: “Accomplishing what they (March 14) had vowed in the Bristol document, forming a National Council that expresses the diversity (of the coalition), in addition to finding ways for the civil society … to function.”

Lebanon's U.N. Ambassador Nawaf Salam, who called for a Security Council meeting on imposing a no-fly zone over Libya, vowed to protect civilians in the country “as swiftly as possible.”

Lebanon is the only Arab nation on the 15-member council.

The U.N. Security Council on Monday held talks on Libya, as France said it hoped that Arab League support for a no-fly zone would be a "game-changer" in securing international action.

As he entered the talks, French envoy to the Security Council Gerard Araud said Lebanon -- as the current Arab representative on the Security Council -- would also be working to sway opponents of a no-fly zone, led by China and Russia.

The Phalange Party politburo praised on Monday the Lebanese who participated in the March 13 rally, noting that the renewal of the Cedar Revolution “is a message to all concerned sides and the March 14 leadership of the need to return to the essence of its cause and end concessions no matter how great the pressures.”

The party said in a statement after its weekly meeting that the people’s renewed commitment to the revolution should be met with the same commitment by the March 14 camp leaders to fulfill pledges.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Monday noted that "forming the new cabinet is the best way to confront social and economic challenges" in the country.

After talks with a high-ranking Hizbullah delegation at his residence in the Beirut neighborhood of Clemenceau, Jumblat added: "I'm surprised that some are speaking of impossibilities as the Shebaa Farms are still occupied (by Israel), as well as the Kfarshouba Hills and the Ghajar village."

Lebanon filed a complaint on Monday to the United Nations Security Council over an Israeli violation of its regional waters on February 2, 2011.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that on February 2, an Israeli warship briefly entered Lebanon's regional waters at al-Naqoura before returning to the Palestinian regional waters where it opened machine gun fire towards the Lebanese waters.