An agreement over overdue funds owed to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, totaling $32 million, is expected to be reached before President Michel Suleiman travels to New York City on September 18 to take part in the United Nations General Assembly, reported al-Liwaa daily on Friday.

The funds could be made through a budget surplus or treasury advance, revealed Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s sources.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat hoped that the electricity draft law would be adopted at parliament without any complications, As Safir newspaper reported on Friday.

“What happened during the cabinet meeting is positive and approving the electricity project is an accomplishment,” he said.

The electricity draft law on producing 700 megawatts of power will be referred to parliament on Friday for it to be later referred to the joint committees in order to avert any stalling in its adoption.

Ministerial sources told As Safir newspaper in remarks published on Friday revealed that the logistical preparations to refer the law to parliament have been complete.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s statements to al-Arabiya television will trigger wide responses locally, especially among the March 14-led opposition that had already criticized them, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Friday.

Sources told the newspaper that al-Rahi’s statements will have an impact on the Christians in Lebanon and they will confuse them.

The political and verbal dispute between the Mustaqbal bloc and Speaker Nabih Berri has forced the intervention of religious authorities in an attempt ease the tensions between the two sides.

Concerned sources told the daily An Nahar in remarks published on Friday that the escalation could serve as another obstacle in the impending debate over the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Any official “who chooses to remain silent over the violations” of Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, ISF Intelligence Bureau chief Col. Wissam al-Hassan and State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza would be “committing a crime,” Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun said Thursday.

“Claims that we have surrendered to Miqati’s wish to keep Rifi, al-Hassan and Mirza in their posts are untrue,” Aoun said in an interview with LBC television.

A number of Lebanese activists, journalists, intellectuals and politicians on Thursday staged a sit-in at the Samir Qassir Square in downtown Beirut in support for “the freedom and dignity of the Syrian people.”

Simultaneously, a group of supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who belong to a number of Lebanese political parties, gathered outside the Beirut Municipality in the center of the capital, carrying Syrian flags and pictures of Assad and shouting slogans in support of the Syrian leader and his regime, state-run National News Agency reported.

The President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Judge Antonio Cassese, on Thursday issued an order convening the Trial Chamber for the first time in the case against the four suspects accused of being involved in the Rafik Hariri murder -- Mustafa Badreddine, Salim Ayyash, Hassan Aneissy and Assad Sabra.

“According to the Tribunal's rules, the Trial Chamber may meet before trial starts to engage in various matters, such as holding an initial appearance with the accused if one is in custody, deciding whether a trial in absentia is appropriate and ruling on preliminary motions,” the STL said in a press release.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stated on Thursday that Prime Minister Najib Miqati is attempting to assume his responsibilities regarding the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, adding that even if the government were to be transformed into a caretaking one, it wouldn’t be able to escape funding the international court.

He said: “The government will incur negative consequences if it shies away from its duty to fund the STL.”

Public transportation drivers held a strike on Wednesday to protest the government’s alleged negligence of their demands.

President of the Syndicate of Taxi Drivers and Public Transport Workers Marwan Fayad told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) “the transportation sector strike is to express the rights (of the public transportation drivers) to achieve their demands.”