Saudi Ambassador Ali Awad Assiri said Monday that the Saudi-Syrian initiative aimed at ending the Lebanese crisis was not linked to the indictment that will be issued by the international tribunal in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination case.

“The Saudi-Syrian initiative … is ongoing and will continue. It has nothing to do with a decision or the release of an indictment,” Assiri told Voice of Lebanon radio station.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri held talks on Sunday with Sultan Qaboos bin Said at the Bait al-Baraka Palace in Muscat on the latest regional and international developments and bilateral relations and ways to develop them.

The meeting was attended by Minister of Information Tareq Mitri, Minister of State Michel Pharaon, the Lebanese Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman Afif Ayoub, former MPs Ghattas Khoury and Bassem Sabeh, and advisor Hani Hammoud from the Lebanese side, and the Omani Minister of Foreign Affairs Youssef bin Alawai bin Abdullah and the Ambassador of the Sultanate of Oman to Lebanon Mohammad bin Khalil al-Jazmi.

The Hague sources have told Naharnet that Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Danielle Bellemare has not yet submitted a draft indictment to STL Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen.

Moreover, Bellemare office sources stressed to Naharnet that when the prosecutor submits a draft indictment to Fransen, he would issue an official statement to announce that.

A major fire, which erupted in the town of Fatri in the Jbeil region a week ago, has threatened to reach the houses in the area after having had destroyed 150,000 square meters of land, the head of the municipality Imad Daou told AFP on Sunday.

"Eighty percent of the land in the town has been destroyed. The entire town is on fire starting from the river and reaching the valley, and even the mountain. There aren't enough fire department teams to control the blaze," he told AFP in a phone call.

Israel's plan to pull its troops out of northern Ghajar, a disputed village on the flashpoint border with Lebanon, is likely to prove more of a headache than a political victory for Beirut, experts say.

"The people of Ghajar do not want to be part of Lebanon," said Timur Goksel, former senior adviser of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), of the village's 2,200 residents -- none of whom is Lebanese.

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel on Sunday stressed that "Hizbullah's approach has become well-known – an approach of dictation and intimidation."

Hizbullah "wants all initiatives to be in service of its interests," Gemayel told Voice of Lebanon Radio.

Sources monitoring the contacts between Riyadh and Damascus noted that a race is underway between the indictment in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the solutions proposed by the Saudi-Syrian efforts over which one will be released first.

They told An Nahar Sunday that the efforts would have reached a positive conclusion had it not been for Saudi King Abdullah's recent medical setback.

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Moqdad stated that Lebanese-Syrian ties "cannot be normal if the situation in Lebanon is not normal," reported the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper on Sunday.

He said: "Syria will not interfere in Lebanon in the interests of any side and the Lebanese officials are responsible for their country."

Mustaqbal MP Ahmed Fatfat stressed that Interior Minister Ziad Baroud's decision to take disciplinary measures against Internal Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi came in light of the minister's lax approach in defending the ISF.

Fatfat told the daily al-Mustaqbal Sunday: "It seems that Baroud is taking measures that appear as a political position or opinion."

Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar stressed on Sunday the importance of convening Cabinet as there are several dangerous and vital matters that need to be addressed and appointments that should be approved.

He said that obstructing state functioning should no longer continue.