Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday expressed his belief that “the Cedar Revolution has set Lebanon back 60 years legally and demographically, squandered public money, and provided the suitable atmosphere for further foreign intervention in Lebanon’s present and future.”

“This is the reason behind its failure,” Berri noted in a speech at a ceremony organized by the International Intellectual Conference to honor late Shiite clerics Mohammed Makki al-Jizzini and Zeineddine al-Jabhi.

The parliamentary telecommunications committee held a meeting on Monday to discuss the suggestion to form a specialized technical team to determine what is located on the second floor of a Telecommunications Ministry building at Adliyeh, revealed the head of the committee MP Hasan Fadlallah.

He said during a press conference after a heated committee session at parliament: “A dispute erupted over who has the authority to appoint an Ogero Telecom member in the technical team.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat condemned Friday’s attack against the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, wondering whether the timing was connected to “very sensitive” political situation on the internal and regional scenes.

He asked in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “Was the attack aimed at pressuring the participating countries in UNFIL to lower the number of troops who have played a major role in implementing U.N. Security Council resolution 1701?”

The presidency announced on Monday that President Michel Suleiman had requested that the Justice Ministry take legal action against Internal Security Forces chief Major General Ashraf Rifi over his refusal to obey the orders of caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud.

On Thursday, Baroud had ordered Rifi to pull out ISF Intelligence Bureau personnel from the second floor of the building affiliated with the telecom ministry, where OGERO Telecom is in charge of the installations of the third mobile network donated by China to Lebanon according to a cabinet resolution.

Caretaker Health Minister Mohammed Jawad Khalife denied to the Central News Agency on Monday some media reports that Palestinian refugees near al-Shabriha camp in Tyre had pelted his convoy with stones.

He asserted that he never headed to the South on Monday, adding that he was in Beirut all morning as he was carrying out surgeries at the American University of Beirut Medical Center.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati condemned on Monday the attack against a U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon on Friday, stressing the important role the Italian contingent plays in the international force.

He said after holding talks with Italian Ambassador to Lebanon Giuseppe Morabito: “The attack was primarily aimed at destabilizing Lebanon.”

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stated on Monday that he does not oppose amending the Taif Accord “as experience has revealed several of its flaws.”

He said after holding talks with Change and Reform bloc MP Nematallah Abi Nasr: “We don’t mind change and if we needed a new agreement, then why not.”

The March 14 forces might resort to adopting a “mobile” draft-law to thwart an attempt by Speaker Nabih Berri to hold a parliamentary session on June 8 to renew the mandate of the Central Bank governor.

Berri is seeking to give the parliament executive powers amid an absence of a government and a need to find solutions to pressing issues such as the renewal of Riyad Salameh’s mandate and amnesty for several prisoners.

A Lebanese bank has frozen the assets of Leila Trabolsi Ben Ali, the wife of former Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, and a number of her relatives, revealed official bank sources in Beirut.

They told the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper in remarks published on Monday that her accounts are only located in the Lebanese-Canadian Bank and they do not include any accounts for her husband.

A Lebanese bank informed the private investigation authority at the Central Bank that a client suspected of involvement in terrorist activities had opened an account at one of the bank’s branches.

As Safir newspaper reported on Monday that the suspect declared that he was an electrician, but his account received cash deposits worth $200,000, followed by cash withdrawals.