President Michel Suleiman expressed confidence on Thursday that the parties rejecting proportional representation in the parliamentary elections will eventually support it.

“Those publically standing against proportionality today will be with it in the future,” Suleiman told As Safir daily about al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri and Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat.

A Hizbullah commander accused of targeting U.S. soldiers in Iraq may be released from prison within weeks, his lawyer predicted, claiming that flimsy American evidence has kept his client behind bars for nearly five years.

The case has been a thorn in diplomatic relations between Baghdad and Washington since the American military pullout last December.

Ten vehicles belonging to the team of U.N. observers overseeing Syria’s shaky ceasefire arrived at the Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport on Wednesday.

“Over the past hours, a private Italian jet landed at the Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport carrying a Land Cruiser SUV. It was followed by three other planes coming from the Czech Republic and carrying nine vehicles belonging to the U.N. observers in Syria,” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.

The evening round on the second day of parliamentary debate on the government’s policies was rife with harsh criticism from the opposition and calls for better performance from the ruling camp, amid several verbal clashes over Hizbullah’s controversial arsenal of weapons.

MP Hassan Fadlallah, member of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc, snapped back at the rival March 14 camp over accusations that his party had notably remained silent over the recent controversial release of Brig. Gen. Fayez Karam from prison, less than two years after he was convicted of collaborating with Israel.

The Appeals Chamber of the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon has ruled in a decision issued Wednesday that only relevant documents that may explain why former General Security chief Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed was detained or why he should have been released must be disclosed by the Prosecutor, the STL announced.

“The Judges directed that the relevant documents should be disclosed by 18 May at the latest. They also decided that the Prosecutor does not need to hand over exact copies of previously disclosed documents,” the STL said.

The remains of five corpses, likely to belong to Syrian soldiers, were found in the Jezzine town of Kfarhouna on Wednesday, reported Voice of Lebanon radio.

It said that the soldiers were probably killed during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

Economy Minister Nicolas Nahhas announced on Wednesday that the Bakeries Union has decided to call off its strike that was scheduled for Thursday.

He said during a press conference that the strike was cancelled after an agreement was reached to subsidize flour with LL70,000, meaning that the bakeries will receive a ton of flour at the cost of LL440,000 instead of LL510,000.

March 8 camp MPs took turns on Wednesday in defending the government on the second day of the session aimed at assessing its work.

Development and Liberation bloc MP Ghazi Zoaiter defended the government’s decision to distance itself from regional affairs, saying that such a position guarantees Lebanon’s neutrality and its equidistance from all sides.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon said Wednesday that the decision of pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen to set a deadline for challenging the court’s jurisdiction is another milestone towards trial in the case of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination.

Four Hizbullah members - Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Hussein Oneissi and Assad Sabra – have been indicted by the STL in Hariri’s Feb. 2005 killing.

Weapons found at the port of the southern city of Sidon were old arms that were bought from the army through a public auction, Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) reported Wednesday.

The report came after Future News said a number of old weapons that were being prepared to be shipped abroad have discovered by security apparatuses at the port.