March 14's MPs announced Friday that they have decided to submit to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon a petition demanding the expansion of the jurisdiction of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to cover all the assassinations that targeted March 14 figures after Dec. 12, 2005 – the day MP Gebran Tueni was murdered.

The announcement was made during a mass rally commemorating the ninth anniversary of former premier Rafik Hariri's assassination at the BIEL exhibition center in Beirut.

High-level Russian and U.S. diplomats have promised to help unblock the deadlocked Syria peace talks in Geneva, U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said Thursday.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov and U.S. Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman "promised that they will help both here and in their capitals ... to unblock the situation for us," Brahimi told reporters following a meeting with the two diplomats.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon suspended on Wednesday its sessions after the case of fifth suspect Hassan Merhi was joined to that of the four already convicted fugitives.

"We will announce the date of the upcoming session once Merhi's defense team has prepared all the necessary documents and is ready to take part in the trials,” STL Presiding Judge David Re announced.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Tuesday challenged rivals in the Hizbullah-led camp to endorse the recent charter issued by Bkirki as a “national program of action,” noting that some parties have only voiced “verbal support” for the document.

“The Bkirki charter reminded me of the famous Bkirki declaration,” said Geagea at a press conference he held at his Maarab headquarters.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday reiterated that the formation of a so-called “de facto cabinet” would violate the 1943 National Pact, an unwritten agreement that laid the foundation of Lebanon as a multi-confessional state.

“What's dangerous in the cabinet formation process is that it is based on incomplete consultations that excluded the biggest Christian parliamentary bloc,” Aoun said in a written statement he recited after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc.

King Abdullah Monday decreed jail terms of up to 20 years for belonging to "terrorist groups" and fighting abroad, as it struggles to deter Islamist Saudis from becoming jihadists.

"Taking part in combat outside the kingdom, in any form" will be punished by jail terms of between three and 20 years, said the decree published by state news agency SPA.

The United Nations deplored the deadly blast that hit the Bekaa town of Hermel on Saturday evening, stressing that embracing the military institution is “the only way to face these random terrorist actions.”

"We strongly condemn the car bombing in Hermel which killed and wounded a number of people,” U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly said in a released statement.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Friday stressed that Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam will not be able to form “a de facto cabinet,” blaming him for the delay in the cabinet formation process.

“The consultations over cabinet formation have not led to anything and no progress has been made,” Aoun said during an interview with the pan-Arab, Beirut-based al-Mayadeen television.

Damascus justified on Friday Hizbullah's involvement in the Syrian war, saying the party is “preemptively” defending Lebanon.

“Hizbullah's men are resilient fighters that are defending their country,” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said at a press conference in Switzerland's Geneva.

The U.N. aims to bring Syria's warring sides back to the negotiating table from February 10, mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said Friday, despite a regime vow not to give any ground.

"I suggested we resume, on the basis of an agreed agenda, on February 10," Brahimi told reporters after a week of closed-door negotiations wrapped up.