MP Oqab Saqr said he will choose the "right moment" to uncover the name of the mediator who was dispatched by former head of Lebanon's General Security Directorate Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed to PM Saad Hariri to ask for $15 million in return for giving up his case.

Saqr, in remarks published Wednesday by An-Nahar newspaper, accused Sayyed of "intimidating people and persuading others to get out of this (blackmail) issue."

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun criticized on Tuesday the Police Intelligence Bureau and General Prosecution calling them an "armed gang" demanding citizens not to obey them.

He stressed that the intelligence bureau does not abide by the laws, wondering who it answers to and who monitors its budget.

Progressive Socialist Party media officer Rami al-Rayyes stated Tuesday that a meeting between party leader MP Walid Jumblat and Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah is possible, adding that communications between the PSP and other political power are ongoing.

Furthermore, he voiced his opposition to non-political attacks against the president, prime minister, and other officials, saying that they are "unnecessary, unless some sides have some implicit aims to destroy the internal consensus."

Lebanese Forces bloc MP Antoine Zahra stated Monday the current uproar and threats are being issued out of fear and are attempts to escape the inevitable.

He condemned the intimidation and claims that the Lebanese have come full circle after five years, saying: "We are certain that we will eventually establish the state that we want and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon will continue its work and achieve a result."

The press office of former General Security chief Major General Jamil al-Sayyed responded on Tuesday to the statement issued by the Egyptian embassy in Lebanon in which he justified his recent statement by saying that he "presented the embassy and its diplomats a favor to objectively tackle the situation."

Sayyed's statement said that the diplomatic official at the embassy is fully responsible for the security of its diplomats "due to the irresponsible positions he is presenting before his Lebanese visitors."

The Anti-Drug Bureau on Wednesday announced it had foiled an attempt to smuggle 65.7 kilograms of hashish from Lebanon to the Netherlands.

A police statement said the shipment was packed in the form of chips inside a secret hiding in the trunk of a silver Kia with a European plate.

President Michel Suleiman on Wednesday condemned plans by a small church in the U.S. state of Florida to burn copies of the Quran to protest the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Such a move "would totally contradict with the logic of dialogue of civilizations, religions and culture," Suleiman said in a statement.

MP Sami Gemayel said Wednesday that the Phalange was not ashamed of its past despite accusations that the party was proud of its collaboration with Israel during the civil war.

"They say we are proud of our collaboration with Israel," Gemayel said about his critics during a press conference. "Maybe they are used to collaborating with people who gave up their past in favor of their own interests."

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea attacked Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun on Wednesday and called his Change and Reform Bloc in parliament the "ruined bloc."

"The biggest threat to the state is that it can't make any defense strategy decision as far as military, or security operations are concerned," Geagea told a delegation from Baskinta in response to Aoun's accusations of violations that allegedly threaten the state.

There are no mediation efforts between President Michel Suleiman and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun who has created controversy after verbally attacking the head of state and several cabinet ministers, Baabda sources told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.

The sources called for calm before any steps to reconcile the two officials.