Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri held a series of contacts with several rival parties to push forward the cabinet formation process that reached a standstill after it was put on front burner recently.

Al-Joumhouria newspaper reported that Hariri reportedly held a telephone conversation with Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun.

Muslim clerics and scholars are set to hold a sit-in anew near the Defense Ministry in Yarze to protest the arrest of Sheikh Omar al-Atrash, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Saturday.

According to the daily, the army intelligence received information that a delegation from Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley will head to the defense ministry to protest the ongoing detention of al-Atrash.

Security measures were boosted near the Defense Ministry in Yarze following reports indicated that extremist terrorist groups have an intention to target military headquarters across Lebanon, including the ministry.

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Saturday, the strict security measures were fortified after security agencies obtained information that high-ranking military officers will be targeted by terrorist acts.

Hizbullah on Friday warned that any “ploys and maneuvering” in the cabinet formation process might “topple the results that are sought” from the formation of a new government.

The party has called for “forming an all-embracing cabinet comprising all national components so that it can confront all political, security, economic and social problems,” said MP Mohammed Raad, head of Hizbullah's Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc.

French President Francois Hollande on Friday promised President Michel Suleiman to start equipping the Lebanese Army with weapons “as soon as possible.”

Hollande also reiterated “Paris' commitment to supporting Lebanon” during a meeting with Suleiman in Tunisia, where they took part alongside world leaders in a ceremony celebrating the adoption of the country's new constitution.

The "Free Sunnis of Baalbek Brigade” announced on Friday killing an Iranian military trainer in the Bekaa region.

"We claim responsibility for a heroic operation that targeted a top Iranian military trainer on Thursday at a drill camp,” the brigade said on its Twitter account, noting that the operation's name is “in the heart of the enemy.”

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji on Friday announced that the army will “tighten the noose” on suspicious groups that might pose a threat to the country's security, noting that the military will not leave any Lebanese area “under the mercy of security chaos.”

“The army does not fight anyone over their ideologies, but rather because of the attacks they launch against citizens and soldiers,” Qahwaji said during a meeting with the army's senior and junior officers.

President Michel Suleiman participated on Friday in a ceremony in Tunisia to celebrate the adoption of the country's new constitution three years after the revolution and attended by the heads of state.

Suleiman voiced hope during a brief speech before the Tunisian national assembly that Tunis enjoys stability and prosperity after the adoption of the new constitution.

A retired British police officer testified at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Friday on the operations that took place to recover pieces from the seabed in the vicinity of the area where ex-Premier Rafik Hariri was assassinated on Feb. 14, 2005.

Witness Malcolm Wilson, who used to work in the anti-terror unit of British police, briefed the court on a report he had written on the search of identified open sea area, swimming pool, and marina surrounding the St. Georges Yacht Club.

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc hailed on Friday the Bkirki Treaty that was announced by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, saying that it helps “fortify Lebanon's immunity because it asserts national principles stipulated in the Baabda Declaration.”

It said after its weekly meeting that the treaty “adds central meanings to the Lebanese national entity.”