Speaker Nabih Berri reportedly has called for a parliament session to elect seven lawmakers for the Higher Council whose function is to try presidents and ministers, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Monday

The judicial authority will then elect its eight members, totaling the number of the Higher Council to fifteen members, added the daily.

Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat held talks Sunday with Speaker Nabih Berri and addressed a new jab at Prime Minister Saad Hariri despite the latest "pacification" between them.

Speaker Nabih Berri announced Wednesday that Parliament will convene on Tuesday and Wednesday next week to discuss the cabinet's Policy Statement and vote on confidence in the new government.

Speaking to MPs during the weekly Ain el-Tineh meeting, Berri said he will call for morning and evening sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday and, if necessary, an afternoon session on Friday.

Speaker Nabih Berri replied to Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri’s remarks about Libya’s absence from the Beirut summit, saying the “major harm was done to Lebanon forty years ago,” in reference to the disappearance of Shiite cleric Imam Moussa al-Sadr which is blamed on Libya.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has voiced concern that “something big” might be blocking the formation of the new government as he condemned the latest fiasco that followed the nomination of Jawad Adra as a so-called consensus minister.

“I’m afraid that something big might be behind the obstruction but it is still unclear to me. It is something bigger than the issue of the Consultative Gathering and deeper than the issue of portfolios,” Berri told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Monday.

President Michel Aoun held talks Monday in Baabda with Speaker Nabih Berri and was scheduled to meet with Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri.

Media reports said the meetings follow an urgent invitation from Aoun and are aimed at exploring means to break the government formation deadlock.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday revealed that “new mechanisms” are being discussed in order to overcome the so-called Sunni obstacle that is delaying the formation of the new government.

“Everyone knows that it is necessary to form the government in order to confront all problems and challenges, especially the economic and social situations,” Berri said during the weekly Ain el-Tineh meeting.

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed “pessimism” about the recent government-related issues, rejecting accusations that the Shiite duo (AMAL Movement of the Speaker and Hizbullah) were obstructing the formation process, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Thursday.

Although sharp-toned, the latest stances of Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri and Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah “left the door open for solutions,” Speaker Nabih Berri said on Wednesday.

Quoting the speaker after the weekly Ain el-Tineh meeting, MPs also said that Berri had informed Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Jebran Bassil of his stance on the ideas the latter has proposed to resolve the so-called Sunni obstacle that is delaying the formation of the new government.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced Wednesday that “all we can do is to pray for the government to be formed.”

Berri also warned over the economic situation in the country and the “dangerous developments” in the region, telling MPs that he prefers to hold back on a legislative session that he had intended to call for in light of “the current situation and circumstances.”