Kataeb party leader MP Sami Gemayel stressed on Wednesday that the time has come for popular accountability against the dump collecting company Sukleen “which has been taking Lebanon hostage for over 20 years.”

“The contract of Sukleen was extended several times since the last tender in the 1990s until today. It is time for popular accountability for a company that has been taking Lebanon hostage for over 20 years,” said Gemayel in a press conference on the waste management crisis.

Residents of the southern town of al-Kfour held a sit-in on Wednesday blocking the road leading to the town's landfill and forbidding dump trucks from emptying their loads, the National News Agency said.

“Our sit-in is open until the landfill is closed completely. It has become a source of diseases and insects of various kinds. All the land surrounding the landfill has become barren and the poison accumulating affects all neighboring areas,” the residents of the town that lies in the Nabatieh district complained.

Head of the Lebanese Forces Samir Geagea accused Iran of thwarting the presidential elections in Lebanon through its ally Hizbullah, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Wednesday.

He told the daily: “The presence of a president will weaken Hizbullah's role in Lebanon.”

Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil remarked that the garbage crisis in Lebanon “affects all people without discrimination between the sects or regions,” reported As Safir on Wednesday.

He therefore stressed that this issue should not be addressed through political and petty means.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stated that Lebanon should await the outcome of the meeting between Iranian officials and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius to determine whether the election of a president will be facilitated, reported the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Wednesday.

He told the daily: “If the Iranian side does not show flexibility regarding the elections and the cabinet's upcoming session, then it would therefore be attempting to alter the Taef Accord.”

The army will take strict measures in the vicinity of the Grand Serail while cabinet is in session on Thursday, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Wednesday.

A prominent military source told the daily: “The army is ready for all scenarios.”

Prime Minister Tammam Salam stressed that he will not become a “false witness to practices that serve to obstruct the cabinet,” reported the daily An Nahar on Wednesday ahead of a cabinet session set for Thursday.

Ministerial sources told the daily: “The contacts that he had held over the past week have not led to any result.”

The U.S. imposed sanctions Tuesday on three senior Hizbullah officials, including Mustafa Badreddine, over their alleged military role in Syria.

“The U.S. Department of the Treasury today imposed sanctions against a set of key Hizbullah leaders, military officials, and an associate in Lebanon, further exposing and targeting Hizbullah's active support to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and Hizbullah's terrorist activities,” a statement said.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq began a two-day visit to France Tuesday by meeting his French counterpart Bernard Cazeneuve.

Mashnouq is accompanied by a high-ranking security delegation comprising General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim and Brig. Gen. Imad Othman, head of the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday called on the government to hold an “extraordinary meeting” to address the garbage crisis that started growing after the July 17 closure of the Naameh landfill, warning against a possible spread of “random dumps” in all regions.

In a statement issued after its weekly meeting, the bloc urged “an immediate, extraordinary meeting to discuss the waste crisis that has started to plague the Lebanese, and which is descending into a futile debate that is straying away from addressing the real social and health problems.”