Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun has made a clear connection between the formation of a new government and the election of a president which he said should garner a huge support by the rival political parties.

Aoun told An Nahar daily in an interview published on Saturday that he agreed with Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea on the need for a strong president.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea criticized security forces' behavior during Monday's standoff at Universite Saint Joseph in the Beirut neighborhood of Huvelin, accusing Lebanese officials of “destroying the state.”

"Despite the presence of security forces since 11:00 am, the situation did not change until 4:00 in the afternoon when reinforcements were brought,” Geagea said at a press conference he held to comment on USJ's events.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea called on the rival Lebanese parties to adopt President Michel Suleiman's Independence Day speech as a roadmap to resolve the current crises in light of the Baabda Declaration.

“Salvation can only occur through the formation of an active cabinet that wouldn't be paralyzed, reviving the work of the parliament, the withdrawal from Syria and carrying out the presidential elections on time without any obstruction,” Geagea said in a statement issued by his press office on Saturday.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea noted on Monday that Lebanon's constitution and National Pact make no reference to resistance movements.

He declared during a press conference: “The lack of reference renders Hizbullah an unconstitutional and illegitimate armed group and we will never recognize its legitimacy.”

The March 14 alliance will work hard to hold the presidential elections at the end of President Michel Suleiman's mandate in May next year, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea said.

There will not be a repeat of previous elections in a sense that the mandate expires without being able to elect a new president, Geagea said.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stressed on Monday that the continuity of the state or its downfall depends on the behavior of officials, who already destroyed half of it.

“If the behavior of officials remains the same, we will have nothing left of our state,” Geagea said in comments published in An Nahar newspaper.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea called on Saturday for reviving the nation's constitutional institutions, mainly the presidency, to hold effective elections next year.

Geagea called for holding “effective” presidential elections when President Michel Suleiman's six-year mandate ends in May next year.

Al-Mustaqbal bloc leader Fouad Saniora visited caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Thursday night, culminating a round of talks he held with the country's top officials following his return from Paris.

Saniora's meetings started on Thursday with President Michel Suleiman as part of a delegation from the southern city of Sidon. He then held talks at his residence with Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Monday criticized remarks voiced by former premier Saad Hariri and Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea over the deadly clashes in Tripoli, stressing that fighting between the rival districts of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen cannot “change the course of the bloody developments in Syria.”

“There are some strange self-contradictory stances, as some are urging the cabinet to convene to remove arms from Tripoli while refusing its convention over other matters or the convention of parliament under the excuse that it is a caretaker cabinet! And some are in some way or another holding the Lebanese army responsible for what's happening in Tripoli, while what's needed more than ever is support for the military institution,” Jumblat said in his weekly editorial in al-Anbaa newspaper, referring to Geagea and Hariri.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea called on Monday on the caretaker cabinet to hold an extraordinary session to call the northern city of Tripoli an arms-free city.

Geagea said in comments published in An Nahar newspaper that most of the residents of the northern city are demanding to announce it an arms-free city.