Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Thursday accused the Syrian regime and Hizbullah of waging a “new elimination war” against his party, pointing out that Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun is only a cover for this attack.

“The LF is exposed to a new elimination war similar to what happened in 1989, and it is using again the same tools used back then,” Geagea stated in a press conference during which he responded to attacks against his party after it withdrew its support for the Orthodox Gathering's draft electoral law.

Israel is warning Syria to stop transferring advanced weapons to Hizbullah and hinted it is considering more air strikes to achieve this, the New York Times reported Thursday.

"Israel is determined to continue to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons to Hizbullah. The transfer of such weapons to the party will destabilize and endanger the entire region," an Israeli official told the paper.

Italian Defense Minister Mario Mauro lauded on Thursday the role played by President Michel Suleiman to distance Lebanon from the region's crises.

A statement issued by the presidency said Mauro, who visited Suleiman at Baabda palace, praised Suleiman for abiding by the Baabda Declaration, a document adopted by rival Lebanese leaders last year pledging to stick to the dissociation policy.

Two people were injured on Thursday after a dispute between men from rival families in the northern city of Tripoli turned into a gunfight, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA identified the wounded as Mohammed al-Zakhoury and Jneid al-Nashar.

The Syrian army has erected earth mounds in areas on the northeastern border with Lebanon and dug trenches to prevent vehicles from crossing, Lebanese security sources said Thursday.

The sources told MTV that the operation began at the start of the week in the area of the Southern Great River all the way to the Wadi Khaled region in Akkar district.

Police arrested an Ethiopian maid for assaulting her 75-year-old employer and burning her with hot water in Jbeil, north of Beirut, the state-run National News Agency reported Thursday.

NNA said that the house worker, 24, hit Samia Kh. on her head with a bronze statue and then sprayed her with hot water after she collapsed in her home in Mastita.

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam denied on Thursday that the March 14 alliance and Saudi Arabia were dictating him the formation of the new government.

In remarks to As Safir daily, Salam said: “I will not respond to any accusation and will not bicker with anyone.”

Speaker Nabih Berri withdrew Thursday evening a proposal that mixes the 1960 electoral law and the controversial Orthodox Gathering draft law after al-Mustaqbal Movement rejected it.

Under Berri's hybrid vote plan, 64 MPs would be be elected according to the winner-takes-all system and the remaining half under the proportional representation system.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stated on Wednesday that the party had from the beginning of discussions over a parliamentary electoral law sought an agreement over one that garners the support of all sides, stressing that it never pledged to adopt the Orthodox Gathering law.

He said during a press conference: “The Orthodox proposal never had the chance to succeed.”

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi urged lawmakers to agree on an electoral law that meets the aspirations of the Lebanese people, the state-run National News Agency reported on Wednesday.

"MPs must reach an accord over a vote law that meets the aspirations of Lebanese people inside the country and around the world,” al-Rahi said after meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas on Tuesday eve.