Speaker Nabih Berri expressed discontent on Tuesday over the violent verbal attack against Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi by the March14-led opposition.

“His eminence realizes what’s happening in Syria and the region, and his only aim is to protect the Christians and all the Lebanese,” Berri told An Nahar newspaper.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Phalange party chief Amin Gemayel are mulling to suspend their participation in a meeting of top Maronite political leaders scheduled to be held in Bkirki later this month.

LF sources told An Nahar daily published Tuesday that the party’s leadership is considering Geagea’s boycott of the meeting on Sept. 23 over Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s latest remarks on Hizbullah and the Syrian crisis.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Monday held separate talks at the seat of the Maronite church in Bkirki with Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun and several March 14 camp officials.

“It is normal to visit His Eminence to wish him well after his safe return (from France), and of course it is not something unusual for us to back his stances, because he is the one entrusted with the Synod for Lebanon and the Synod for the Middle East,” said Aoun after the talks.

Fierce machinegun clashes between a Lebanese group and a Palestinian group are still ongoing since 7:00 pm in the “Kurds neighborhood” on the outskirts of the Beirut southern suburb of Borj al-Barajneh, state-run National News Agency reported.

“Security forces have not been able to reach the place due to the intensity of the clashes,” NNA added.

President Michel Suleiman on Monday voiced his “wish to see the Beirut declaration as a decisive milestone in the course” of the international Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Speaking at the Second Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Beirut, Suleiman said: “Our approach towards the issue of cluster bombs stems from humanitarian considerations, as we are aware of the repercussions of their use and it is a must to voice our political condemnation of those who use cluster munitions.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Monday noted that the latest “fear-inciting remarks on the rise of Salafist or fundamentalist (Islamist) movements … are being used as a ‘scarecrow’.”

“These remarks remind us of the old-new approach that calls for an alliance of minorities” in the region, Jumblat said, adding that such an approach “has destroyed Lebanon.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday held talks with Lebanon’s Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn concerning “cooperation and coordination between the Syrian and Lebanese armies,” Syria’s state-run news agency SANA reported.

“Assad expressed appreciation of the Lebanese army's great efforts in coordination with the Syrian counterpart to monitor the borders between the two countries, which helped foil several weapons smuggling attempts targeting the two countries' stability and security,” SANA said.

President Michel Suleiman stressed on Monday that Lebanon strongly condemns all forms of terrorism as it upholds dialogue and humanitarian acts.

He said in a cable to U.S. President Barack Obama: “The Lebanese people and I sympathize with you at the time when your country remembers the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that took the lives of the innocent.”

French Ambassador to Lebanon Denis Pietton questioned on Monday the uproar created in Lebanon over Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s statements from France, saying that it is unfortunate that it caused division among the Lebanese political class.

He said after holding talks with Prime Minister Najib Miqati that the patriarch’s visit was a success and it granted him an opportunity to express himself.

Hundreds of activists and officials from across the globe gather in Beirut Monday with one aim in mind -- to rid the planet of cluster munitions which have killed or maimed tens of thousands of people worldwide.

The conference, which runs through Friday, joins representatives of 80 of the 100 or so countries that have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international treaty which calls for the eradication of the deadly weapons.