The March 14 General Secretariat expressed its concern and compassion over the flow of displaced Syrians into Lebanon, praising the efforts exerted by the Higher Relief Council and residents of Akkar to harbor them.

It urged in a statement after its weekly meeting “concerned ministries and humanitarian organizations to assist our Syrian brothers.”

The aides of the speaker and the Hizbullah leader on Tuesday informed Premier-designate Najib Miqati that Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun continues to hold onto his demands, including 5 out of 6 Maronite ministers in the cabinet, informed sources told several newspapers.

But Miqati reiterated that he was still waiting for answers on his demand for parliamentary blocs to provide him with lists of names they propose for the cabinet.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has reportedly informed Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat that France is keen on preserving Lebanon’s stability amid an uprising against the Syrian regime.

France is aware of the suppression of the Syrian people and cannot stand idle, Juppe told Jumblat and Caretaker Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi during a meeting in Paris on Tuesday, Pan-Arab daily al-Hayat quoted sources as saying.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman is expected to arrive in Beirut on Thursday on a one-day visit where he is set to hold talks with a number of high-ranking officials during the day, sources told Naharnet on Wednesday.

He is scheduled to later meet political officials over a dinner banquet at the U.S. Embassy.

Public and private school teachers as well as the Lebanese University teachers staged a warning strike Wednesday, to protest the political deadlock and the vacuum in Lebanon.

Around 100,000 teachers in the public and private school sectors went on strike after the teacher’s syndicate agreed on staging warning rallies to protest economic and social problems, An Nahar newspaper said.

Speaker Nabih Berri and March 14 lawmakers are expected to clash over his efforts to hold a parliamentary session amid a political vacuum caused by the absence of a new government.

“No matter what the opinion of colleagues is, some things need to be discussed,” Berri told An Nahar daily in remarks published Wednesday. He said the issue of prisons and the election of a governor for the Central Bank were among the priorities that necessitated a parliamentary session despite the absence of a cabinet.

Speaker Nabih Berri confirmed that Premier-designate Najib Miqati has no substitute and stressed that his continued efforts to form the cabinet didn’t end yet.

“Others have taken longer time trying to accomplish this task,” Berri told An Nahar newspaper published Wednesday.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati’s circles have snapped back at Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun saying the man tasked with forming the new cabinet is acting in accordance with the constitution.

While the circles said that Miqati refuses to bicker with any side over the government impasse, they stressed that the premier-designate “reads the constitution which is clear and has standards that should not be turned into a (political) game.”

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday accused the Hizbullah-led March 8 camp of “pushing the country into a dilemma by toppling the government” of Saad Hariri on January 12 and failing to form a new cabinet until the moment.

“It has become necessary and urgent that the March 8 forces admit before their supporters and the Lebanese public opinion that they have embroiled the country in a crisis by deciding to form a one-sided cabinet,” the bloc said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

Speaker Nabih Berri described on Tuesday the clashes at Maroun al-Ras as an “Israeli massacre in the South.”

He said after holding talks with United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon Commander General Alberto Asarta: “The massacre is a major violation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 and a threat to the security and stability of the region.”