Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat are carrying out direct contacts to tackle the lingering political crises, in specific the cabinet formation stalemate.

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper, Berri and Jumblat are seeking to end the cabinet deadlock based on President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam's determination to form a government at the beginning of 2014.

President Michel Suleiman is holding on to his stance and rejects any attempts to extend his tenure, which ends in May 2014, as media reports said on Tuesday that the cabinet will be formed by January 30, 2014.

Al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Tuesday that Suleiman insists on heading back to his hometown of Amchit on May 26,2014.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat warned on Monday of the weak security situation in Lebanon in light of Sunday's clash in the West Bekaa town of Souairi.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa website: “The clash should force officials to adopt calm political rhetoric, organize their disputes, and form a national government that includes all powers.”

The Prime Minister-designate has “no comments” on Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's latest statement on the formation of the council of ministers, sources close to Tammam Salam told al-Manar television on Saturday.

Salam had met earlier in the day with President Michel Suleiman at Baabda palace to discuss the ongoing consultations over the cabinet's formation.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Friday called for keeping Lebanese diva Fairuz out of political controversy, after remarks voiced by her son Ziad Rahbani sparked an uproar in Lebanon and the Arab world.

“Fairuz was and will always be one of the icons of Lebanon's national heritage, after her voice carved diverse pictures and scenes in the collective memory of all the Lebanese,” Jumblat said in a statement.

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam is holding talks with various parliamentary blocs to bridge the gap between the rival parties and end the political stalemate in the country.

Al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Thursday that Salam and President Michel Suleiman are seeking the formation of a neutral cabinet to avoid vacuum if a political government wasn't formed ahead of February.

Former caretaker Public Works and Transport Minister Ghazi al-Aridi informed President Michel Suleiman about his intention to resign despite his failure to mention the matter to his fellows at the Progressive Socialist Party, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported.

Sources told the daily that Aridi informed Suleiman about his move after the Financial Prosecutor Judge Ali Ibrahim summoned him over a corruption scandal, prompting the president to voice his consensus over the matter.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Monday noted that resigned Public Works and Transport Minister “cannot act on his own,” after the latter said he was stepping down from his duties in the caretaker cabinet.

“Aridi belongs to a party and he cannot act on his own,” Jumblat said in an interview with LBCI television.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Monday noted that some parties' “withdrawal” from political life and their “mistrust” of the army are what encouraged” the recent attacks against its troops.

“It is evident that what we had warned against in the past has proven correct, especially that the alibi of withdrawal that some forces are embracing will lead to the filling of the vacuum by some extremist and even takfiri movements, which will eradicate political moderation and destroy everything,” Jumblat said in his weekly editorial in al-Anbaa, his party's mouthpiece.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat reiterated that he was holding onto the formation of an all-embracing cabinet in which each of the rival camps would get nine ministers and centrists six.

“I am holding onto my stance in forming a consensual government based on the 9-9-6 formula,” Jumblat, a centrist, told As Safir daily published on Monday.