Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Friday announced that he rejects taking part in a cabinet in which Hizbullah has representatives, stressing also the state and illegal weapons "cannot coexist."

"We will not participate in a council of ministers if Hizbullah has representatives in it,” Hariri said in a televised speech he gave during an Iftar banquet held by al-Mustaqbal Movement, revealing also that he has suggested forming a cabinet without his party's participation.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday noted that “Israel's demise is a national Lebanese interest,” stressing that Hizbullah will continue to “protect our country alongside the national Lebanese army" and that it will not "abandon Palestine," as he made a rare public appearance at a rally in Dahieh.

It was the first appearance in public since last September for Nasrallah, public enemy number one for Israel and a staunch ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad whose troops have been battling an insurgency since 2011. His appearance comes less than two weeks after the European Union listed Hizbullah's military wing as a "terrorist" organization.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun criticized on Friday the rocket attacks in the Baabda region on Thursday, saying that they were a message to President Michel Suleiman and the Lebanese army, reported al-Mada radio.

He told the radio: “It's true that I oppose Suleiman's views, but he should not be criticized in such a debased manner.”

A number of Syrians kidnapped on Friday a Lebanese citizen in the Bekaa region, reported the National News Agency.

It said that Syrians from the town of Yabrod in Syria, near the border with Lebanon, kidnapped Abbas Qasas in the Lebanese town of Arsal.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen on Friday issued an order setting January, 13 2014 as a new “tentative date” for the start of the trial in the 2005 assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri and his companions, the STL said in a statement.

The rules of the tribunal require Fransen to set a tentative date, “which could change based on judicial developments,” the STL noted.

Hizbullah slammed on Friday reports that linked President Michel Suleiman's speech about the resistance on Army Day to the rockets that landed near the presidential palace in Beirut's suburb of Baabda.

"The goals behind the crime that targeted military sites and the surroundings of the presidential palace in Baabda are known,” the party said in a released statement.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat condemned on Friday the Baabda rocket attack, wondering if it was a crime for President Michel Suleiman to defend the constitution and Lebanon's “democracy and diversity despite their flaws.”

He asked in a statement: “Is it a crime for the president to pinpoint the difficulties facing the army, most notably the contradiction of the presence of legitimate and illegitimate weapons in Lebanon?”

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi noted on Friday that the state cannot be constructed in light of the presence of illegitimate weapons.

He urged to al-Masira magazine “armed groups to disarm in favor of the official military and security forces because the moment of truth has arrived.”

President Michel Suleiman asserted on Friday that recurrent messages through anonymous rocket attacks on different areas in Lebanon will not change the national principles or convictions.

“No matter who the perpetrators behind the rocket attacks are and no matter what objective they have, these messages will not change our convictions,” said Suleiman in a statement released by the presidential palace.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea condemned on Friday the Baabda rockets that were fired late on Thursday, lauding President Michel Suleiman's stances on Army Day.

He said in a statement: “I never once imagined that the president could be targeted by Lebanese powers.”