Sources following up on the cabinet formation process and close to al-Mustaqbal Movement have snapped back at a statement issued by the Presidency, describing it as an attack on Speaker Nabih Berri and the stance of Dar al-Fatwa’s juristic council.

“President Aoun is shutting the doors in the face of initiatives and openly declaring that he does not want a government. He does not want a government led by (PM-designate Saad) Hariri because any progress in addressing the files will be attributed to Hariri’s role,” the sources told LBCI TV on Tuesday.

Rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch Tuesday called for a U.N. investigation into last year's port blast in Beirut in light of a slow domestic probe.

The August 4 explosion at Beirut port killed more than 200 people and destroyed swaths of the capital but ten months on, little light has been shed on the circumstances that led to Lebanon's worst peacetime disaster.

The Presidency issued a statement on Tuesday criticizing what it said were “interventions” and statements made by political parties concerning the government formation process.

MP Qassem Hashem of the Development and Liberation parliamentary bloc said on Tuesday that the initiative presented by Speaker Berri to ease the formation of a government “could be the last chance” for Lebanon to have a government.

The General Security Directorate said in a statement on Tuesday that its head, Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim has traveled to Moscow.

Russian companies are reportedly interested in investments in Lebanon’s energy and oil sectors, after the formation of a Lebanese government, the Saudi Asharq el-Awsat newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Russian involvement in the Lebanese political and economic files has recently been enhanced after 3 Lebanese political delegations visited Moscow in the last few months, said the daily.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Monday accused President Michel Aoun, the caretaker cabinet and the parliamentary majority of standing idly by in the face of the country’s growing crises.

“It turns out that there is a president in the Baabda Palace but he is not present. There is also a caretaker premier in the Grand Serail but he is not present and the same applies to the parliamentary majority. If they wanted to act, it would have shown by now. The only solution is early parliamentary elections,” Geagea said at a press conference that followed a meeting for the Strong Republic bloc.

Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri will not meet Speaker Nabih Berri in the coming hours and no meeting has been officially scheduled, media reports said on Monday.

“Berri is stressing that his initiative has not died,” MTV reported.

A senior Hizbullah official on Monday lashed out at “those hiding behind political and sectarian interests in order to achieve personal goals.”

“The problem is not in the so-called points of contention. We are rather facing some politicians who want to achieve personal goals that they were not able to achieve during the ordinary days, and they are now taking advantage of people’s suffering and pain to achieve them,” Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hizbullah’s Executive Council, said, referring to the government formation crisis.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced Monday that his initiative for resolving the government formation deadlock enjoys “Arab, regional, international and Western support, including from France.”

He, however, expressed grave concern that “the insistence of some parties on crippling demands will further complicate matters instead of leading to a breakthrough.”