Speaker Nabih Berri expressed resentment on Wednesday over the failure of the ministerial panel drafting a government policy statement to reach agreement over controversial issues, adding that March 8 coalition is holding onto the resistance clause.

“The remaining timeframe for the panel to draft the policy statement ends next week,” Berri warned in comments published in As Safir newspaper, calling on all sides to exert efforts to find common grounds.

Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat have decided to wait for a rally organized by the March 14 alliance on Friday to make their proposal to resolve the policy statement deadlock, media reports said.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam called for a cabinet meeting on Thursday to take an “appropriate decision” on the dispute between March 14 and the Hizbullah-led March 8 camp over the resistance clause after a seven-member committee failed in its tenth meeting to resolve the row.

Interior Miniser Nouhad al-Mashnouq stated on Tuesday that Lebanon has taken a “clear position” on all forms of extremist terrorism.

He added in statement: “We understand Saudi Arabia's recent designation of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah in the kingdom, and al-Nusra Front as terrorist.”

The panel drafting a government policy statement failed on Tuesday to agree on a draft that meets the demands of the rival March 8 and 14 camps.

It therefore decided to refer the issue to the cabinet, which will convene on Thursday to take the appropriate stance on the matter, said the premiership.

The Change and Reform parliamentary bloc on Tuesday warned that a power vacuum in the country would be “fatal” to its political system, urging a speedy adoption of the new cabinet's policy statement.

“Is it true that we're unable to draft an acceptable policy statement for a cabinet that will last two or three months? The cabinet's mission is preserving security and preparing for the presidential vote, so how can it preserve them through vacuum?” MP Ibrahim Kanaan said during a press conference he held after the bloc's weekly meeting in Rabiyeh.

Three people were injured on Tuesday when rockets fired from Syria landed in various Bekaa towns.

At least 4 rockets fired from Syria hit the al-Qantara area in al-Nabi Sheet's outskirts, said MTV.

Customs agents at the Rafik Hariri International Airport on Tuesday foiled an attempt to smuggle a quantity of drugs into the country.

“A 25-year-old Brazilian man identified as K. B. tried to smuggle 6.1 kilograms of cocaine that were hidden among his clothes in two suitcases,” state-run National News Agency said.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly said on Tuesday that he agreed with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on the importance of holding the presidential polls on time as the means to preserve the country's stability.

“The patriarch and I agreed that stability in Lebanon would be best served by conducting the presidential elections on time on the basis of Lebanon’s constitutional procedures and democratic practice,” said Plumbly following talks with al-Rahi in Bkirki.

The Syrian government freed only 25 prisoners — and not the 150 reported by foreign mediators — in exchange for 13 Greek Orthodox nuns who had been held by al-Qaida-linked rebels, the country's information minister said Tuesday.

Qatari and Lebanese officials, who were mediating between Damascus and the rebels holding the nuns, said previously that 150 women prisoners were released early Monday.

President Michel Suleiman urged on Tuesday Lebanon's rival political parties to apologize to the Lebanese people over their failure to implement decisions reached at the all-party talks.

“We should apologize to the Lebanese people” for lack of respect to the decisions taken at the national dialogue table, Suleiman said during a speech at an awards ceremony held at Baabda Palace.