Druze leader Walid Jumblat said he wants a settlement to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon before an indictment is issued.

He told As-Safir newspaper in remarks published Monday that he supports Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's comments which stated that a solution is necessary before the STL issues an indictment in the 2005 assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri believed that a CBC report implicating Hizbullah in the 2005 assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri was an attempt to “put pressure to expedite an indictment” by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Berri, in remarks published Thursday by As-Safir newspaper, said he believed that “repetitive leaks … aimed to push toward a speedy indictment.”

The March 14 general-secretariat on Wednesday urged Lebanese politicians and journalists to stay clear of leaked information that puts into doubt the course of justice in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination case.

In a statement released following its weekly meeting, the general-secretariat said: “We urge everyone, particularly politicians and journalists, to stay clear of leaked (information) and different scenarios that aim at doubting the course of justice.”

Lebanese Forces bloc MP Antoine Zahra stressed Wednesday that "nobody is waiting" for a settlement regarding the Special Tribunal for Lebanon "which has become in the hands of the international community and away from narrow political bickering."

In an interview with Voice of Lebanon Radio, Zahra explained that "peaceful resistance is in the adherence to the Constitution, laws and state institutions," adding that the other camp knows that it will not achieve any gains through "the use of force."

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun has reiterated that he does not reject the authority of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, noting that he was "one of the first people to call for the setting up of the STL."

However, Aoun said that "a bunch of false witnesses tried to change the probe's course."

Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Wednesday denied he has any knowledge about an indictment to be issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and ruled out that the Court decision would explode the Lebanon situation.

"President Michel Suleiman and I as well as Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah will not allow an explosion to threat Lebanon," Hariri told the Russian newspaper Vremya Novosti on the sidelines of his visit to Moscow.

Radical Islamic preacher Omar Bakri, who was arrested Sunday in Tripoli by a patrol of intelligence agents from the Internal Security Forces, on Monday hired Hizbullah's MP Nawwar al-Saheli as his lawyer.

Bakri was sentenced to life in prison by the Military Court on a host of charges, including inciting murder and belonging to an armed faction.

Minister of Environment Mohammed Rahhal criticized on Thursday Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas’ statements against Prime Minister Saad Hariri in which he said that he was succumbing to Israeli pressure.

He said: “This is the height of political degradation at Cabinet.”

Saudi Arabia's high court has rejected the execution sentence of a Lebanese man convicted of sorcery and recommended that he be deported after a new trial, a newspaper reported Thursday.

The Supreme Court in Riyadh said that the death sentence for Ali Sabat was not warranted because he had not harmed anyone and had no prior offences in the country, Okaz said.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri denied on Thursday that he received a phone call from U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman during Wednesday's Cabinet session.

Hariri's Press Office stressed in a statement that this information is fabricated, incorrect, and baseless.