Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday accused President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat of “practicing obstruction” and “pushing the country to a harmful course.”

“They deprived us of the majority that allows us to take decisions. Suleiman is obstructing the L.L.8,900 billion decree and saying there are obstacles,” said Aoun during an interview on his movement’s mouthpiece OTV.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday called for “removing illegal arms” from Tripoli, which has witnessed three days of deadly clashes, holding the government responsible for “any negligence or procrastination in implementing the necessary measures to protect the city.”

“The residents of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen belong to one city and they reject fighting and infiltrators,” the bloc said in a statement recited by ex-PM Fouad Saniora, following an emergency meeting in Tripoli’s Quality Inn Hotel.

The Higher Defense Council on Sunday discussed the security situation in unrest-hit Tripoli, lauding the role of security agencies in “preserving security, busting terrorist networks, freeing abductees and curbing the trafficking of arms across the Lebanese areas.”

Speaking after an emergency meeting at the Baabda Palace, the council’s spokesman, Maj. Gen. Adnan Merheb, stressed the conferees’ keenness on preserving civil peace in the country, noting that “to this end, the council has given the necessary instructions to the military and security institutions and specified the missions of the ministries, administrations and relevant authorities.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Sunday stressed “the need to reach a political solution to the problem” in unrest-hit Tripoli that would “spare the army a confrontation on Tripoli and keep it away from political disputes,” warning of “traps set up by the Syrian regime.”

According to a statement issued by the PSP, Jumblat contacted several security and political officials, urging “the release of Mr. Shadi al-Mawlawi and the addressing of the situation according to the legal norms, to prevent the recurrence of illegal arrests by sides that lack jurisdiction.”

Al-Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora urged the cabinet on Saturday to start preparing the 2012 state budget and to pledge finishing it within two months.

“The problem can’t be resolved in a disorganized and discretionary manner,” Saniora said during a meeting with al-Mustaqbal delegation in his office in Sidon.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday called for holding “further dialogue” over the issue of the upcoming parliamentary elections, noting that an electoral law based on proportional representation would be the best for the country.

“The electoral law is an issue that deserves our patience and time and I hope the doors will not be closed in the face of any plan or idea. We stress the importance of the parliamentary elections in Lebanon,” said Nasrallah in a televised speech marking the completion of the Waad Project for the reconstruction of buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs that were razed by Israeli attacks during the 2006 war.

Hizbullah and the Progressive Socialist Party have agreed on the need for further discussions among the various parties over the electoral law that will govern the 2013 parliamentary vote, and on the need to “protect Lebanon from the repercussions of the Syrian crisis,” a top Hizbullah official told al-Manar television on Friday, following a dinner banquet that gathered the two parties overnight Thursday.

The dinner was held at the house of Hizbullah Minister Hussein al-Hajj Hassan and attended by Hizbullah Minister Mohammed Fneish, member of the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Hassan Fadlallah and Hizbullah top official Wafiq Safa.

The defense team for Mustafa Badreddine -- who is accused of involvement in the 2005 assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri -- on Friday filed a motion challenging the legality of the establishment of the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon which has been probing the case since 2007, the STL said in a statement.

“In its Motion the Badreddine team argue that the STL was unlawfully established and that the Security Council abused its powers by adopting resolution 1757 (2007),” said the STL.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun slammed on Tuesday Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat’s recent criticism against him, telling him to exercise some humility and accusing him of being disrespectful.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “You should remain silent. I have the right to put you on trial and strip you of your immunity.”

Gunmen in northern Nigeria's Kaduna state on Monday shot dead a Lebanese man and his Nigerian driver and abducted another Lebanese national, the state police spokesman said.

"The gunmen attacked the construction bus in which they were traveling, shot dead a Lebanese and the Nigerian driver and kidnapped another Lebanese," Aminu Lawan told Agence France Presse on telephone from Kaduna city.