Bkirki spokesman Walid Ghayad stressed on Friday that the Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi informed a French diplomat, who is following up the presidential deadlock, that the crisis is not only linked to the Christians.

Ghayad said that al-Rahi stressed during a recent meeting with Jean-François Girault, Director of the Department of the Middle East and North Africa at the French Foreign Ministry, that “the head of state is not for the Maronites and Christians alone.”

The “good and comforting” meeting Wednesday between al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri and Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun did not tackle the stalled presidential vote but it will reflect positively on the work of government, media reports said on Thursday.

“After the previous dialogue between the FPM and al-Mustaqbal movement contributed to the formation of the cabinet, the outcome of the Center House meeting will soon materialize in the cabinet and its work,” a source who attended the meeting told LBCI TV.

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri revealed Thursday that the cabinet will resume its meetings “soon”, stressing that any anti-terror strategy can only be implemented “through the army and legitimate security forces.”

“The government will resume its work soon, in light of the contacts I made with Prime Minister Tammam Salam,” Hariri said during a Center House meeting with Arab ambassadors to Lebanon.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun held talks Wednesday evening with al-Mustaqbal movement chief ex-PM Saad Hariri at the Center House in downtown Beirut, in the first public meeting between the two leaders since at least five years.

Future TV said Aoun was accompanied by his son-in-law, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, and that talks were expected to continue over a dinner banquet.

Speaker Nabih Berri downplayed the controversy on the latest speeches made by al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri and Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, saying the two parties will continue to engage in dialogue to take important decisions.

“We are done with the speeches of platforms and we will head to the dialogue aimed at taking decisions and implementing them,” Berri said in remarks published in several local dailies on Wednesday.

Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin praised dialogue among the Lebanese parties, considering it a necessity to combat the challenges and risks that the country is passing through.

“Foreign countries support the dialogue, in particular because it is touching on local and regional issues, in the first place the battle against terrorism and extremism,” Zasypkin said in an interview with An Nahar newspaper on Tuesday.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader and ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed the importance of dialogue and moderation to combat the terrorism of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), local newspapers reported on Tuesday.

Hariri's statement came during a meeting for the leaders and members of al-Mustaqbal movement at the Center House in downtown Beirut on Monday night.

Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat has said it was important for Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal movement to stick to their dialogue to resolve several issues.

“What's important is for the dialogue between al-Mustaqbal and Hizbullah to continue,” said Jumblat in remarks published in As Safir daily on Monday.

Head of the Mustaqbal Movement MP Saad Hariri who had arrived in Lebanon overnight on Friday is expected to remain in the country until the middle of next week, reported the Kuwaiti daily al-Anba on Sunday.

It did not specify which day he is set to depart Beirut.

Lebanon marks on Saturday the tenth anniversary of slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was assassinated on February 14, 2005.

“They killed you, but they will never be able to kill your legacy,” Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea tweeted via his account on Twitter.