Prime Minister Najib Miqati said he backs calls for announcing Tripoli an arms-free city, stressing he does not differentiate between Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh districts which witnessed armed clashes on Friday.

“The situation in Tripoli is under control,” Miqati told As Safir daily published Monday. “The Lebanese army is playing its full role on the ground in cooperation with the Internal Security Forces.”

Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan’s resignation dispute after the formation of the government is likely to end through the nomination of his brother-in-law Marwan Kheireddine to replace him, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Monday.

Sources told the newspaper “since the portfolios have been occupied and there’s no chance to replace any minister after being done with the handover ceremonies in all ministries,” Kheireddine is likely to replace Arslan as minister of state.

Premier Najib Miqati said Monday that he had readied his draft policy statement and would suggest an approach on the controversial issue of the international tribunal during the ministerial committee’s meeting.

The committee tasked with drafting the statement would meet on Tuesday. However, Miqati would hand over copies of his draft to the committee members on Monday to allow them to make their remarks during the meeting at the Grand Serail.

Speaker Nabih Berri urged the new cabinet to speed up the drafting of the policy statement by the end of the month to compensate the government formation delay, An Nahar newspaper reported on Monday.

“PM (Najib) Miqati’s cabinet has the chance to accomplish achievements in different sectors,” he said.

Several opposition officials have traveled to Paris to discuss with former Premier Saad Hariri the approach that the March 14 forces would take after the formation of PM Najib Miqati’s cabinet.

An Nahar daily said that among the March 14 politicians who went to France are Phalange party leader Amin Gemayel, MP Marwan Hamadeh and former lawmakers Fares Soaid, Samir Franjieh and Bassem al-Sabaa.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said that Syrian President Bashar Assad has lost his legitimacy and the fall of his regime would deal a blow to Iran and Hizbullah.

In an interview with French daily Le Figaro over the weekend, Barak said: “If Assad falls, this would deal a severe blow to Iran and Hizbullah, a significant weakening of the Shiite arc.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has said that only national dialogue among the country’s political factions would prevent the country from “sliding into strife.”

In remarks to As Safir daily on Monday, Jumblat said: “After the drafting of the cabinet policy statement we should return to the national dialogue table which alone could protect us from the slide into strife and turmoil.”

Economy Minister Nicolas Nahhas on Sunday hit back at the head of the Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc, former premier Fouad Saniora, over the latter’s remarks in which he wondered whether Prime Minister Najib Miqati was designated as a premier to “eradicate” ex-PM Rafik Hariri’s legacy.

“I regret that these remarks were voiced by ex-PM Saniora, who knows PM Miqati quite well,” Nahhas, who is close to Miqati, said.

A rocket-propelled grenade hit the main street in the al-Baqqar neighborhood in the northern city of Tripoli on Sunday, two days after clashes over an anti-Syria rally killed seven people, state-run National News Agency reported, without elaborating.

But MTV said the grenade caused no casualties when it struck the neighborhood.

Head of the Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc, former premier Fouad Saniora, on Sunday snapped back at Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun over the latter’s recent remarks against ex-PM Saad Hariri and “the policies of ex-PM Rafik Hariri.”

“We have recently heard remarks full of spite, malice and tension, such as those voiced by someone who said he had given (ex-)PM Saad Hariri a ‘one-way ticket,”’ Saniora said of Aoun, without naming him.