The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon will issue a new indictment in the case of the 2005 assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri by the end of this month, Prime Minister Najib Miqati said on Tuesday.

"Daniel Bellemare, the chief prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, informed me on his recent visit to Beirut that he would submit a new revised indictment before leaving office end of February," Miqati told Agence France Presse.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday hit back at Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea and Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel, who both earlier in the day called on the government to step down.

“As long as they have called on the government (to step down), its term will be extended,” Aoun said, in response to a question from a reporter after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc in Rabiyeh.

Former Prime Minsiter Saad Hairi stressed on Tuesday that the Syrian revolution will triumph.

He declared: “I will bear the responsibility of my solidarity with the Syrian people.”

The Syrian National Council pledged on Tuesday that it will establish proper ties with Lebanon once the Syrian regime is overthrown.

It said in an address to the Lebanese people that it will back the Lebanese “in an independent Lebanon, not as people who are part of Syria.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Tuesday called on Hizbullah not to be “mistaken in its calculations,” stressing that “there is no future for any illegal arms and no future for any mini-state.”

Speaking at a rally held by the March 14 forces at the BIEL hall in Beirut to mark ex-PM Rafik Hariri’s seventh murder anniversary, Geagea said: “The moment of freedom, democracy and real statehood has come in the region, so do not be mistaken in your calculations.”

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel stated on Tuesday that the spirit of slain former Premier Rafik Hariri has returned with the wave of Arab revolts and with the release of the indictment in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

He asked: “Is it logical for us to back Arabs revolting against their regimes and accept that the Lebanese remain captive to the illegitimate arms?”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat questioned on Tuesday al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri’s call for supporting the Syrian revolt, saying that he is seeking to tarnish the opposition’s peaceful movement.

He said in a statement: “The timing of the call indicates that the development was orchestrated by the Syrian intelligence.”

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour discussed with Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun the latest Arab League decision to ask the United Nations for a joint Arab-U.N. peacekeeping force in Syria.

Following his talks with Aoun in Rabieh, Mansour said: “The meeting was an occasion to discuss what happened in Cairo when the Arab League called for an extraordinary meeting to discuss the Syrian” crisis.

Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan accused President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Tuesday of obstructing the work of the cabinet by keeping sessions suspended.

“Under no circumstances is it acceptable to suspend cabinet sessions, particularly at this critical stage in the region,” Arslan, who is allied with Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, said in a statement.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon cooperation protocol is expected to pass automatically without any local fuss on the issue amid the cabinet’s impasse, according to newspapers published on Monday.

The Lebanese authorities will not submit any comments on U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon’s decision to extend the mandate of the court probing the assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri, sources told As Safir newspaper.