Speaker Nabih Berri expressed optimism on Monday over the ongoing contacts to form a new cabinet between the political foes, hailing the efforts exerted by head of al-Mustaqbal movement former Prime Minister Saad Hariri.

“Ex-PM Saad Hariri isn't only cooperating with endeavors to form an all-embracing cabinet but also cooperating to remove all obstacles confronting it,” Berri said in comments published in local newspapers.

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam has said it was up to the rival political parties to agree on the details of the new government over their decision to negotiate on a 24-member all-embracing cabinet.

The details of the cabinet formation “were with me when I was planning to form a non partisan government,” Salam said.

Army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji was in Paris on Monday for talks with top French military officials two weeks after President Michel Suleiman announced a Saudi pledge of $3 billion to buy military equipment from France.

Al-Joumhouria daily quoted military sources as saying that Qahwaji has taken with him to Paris a list of the army's needs.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday announced that an Iranian judicial delegation would visit Beirut soon to probe the details and circumstances of the twin bombing that targeted the Iranian embassy in Bir Hassan.

The announcement comes after the death at the military hospital of Majed al-Majed, the Saudi chief of the Qaida-linked Abdullah Azzam Brigades and the alleged mastermind of the deadly attack.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Sunday reported “positive” developments in the cabinet formation process, noting that Speaker Nabih Berri “always facilitates things.”

Jumblat, who visited Ain el-Tineh with caretaker Social Affairs Minister Wael Abu Faour, told al-Manar TV that “meetings with Berri always lead to positive things.”

Lebanese woman Rima Najdi has come up with a unique way to protest the recent deadly bombings that have rocked Lebanon.

She wrapped herself in a hoax suicide vest and roamed several Beirut streets on Sunday.

British Ambassador to Lebanon Tom Fletcher on Sunday held talks with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri in Paris, the embassy announced.

“Fletcher passed on Britain's condolences following the assassination of (ex-minister) Mohammed Shatah, a huge loss to Lebanon,” said the embassy in a statement.

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel on Sunday noted that the verdicts that will be issued by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon against the killers of former premier Rafik Hariri and his companions would “enhance stability” in Lebanon.

“Justice is the normal gate to stability, peace, national unity and partnership,” Gemayel said during a meeting with a delegation from the Beirut and Tripoli bar associations.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani noted on Sunday that Lebanon is passing through a very dangerous and critical phase.

He warned: “Divisions among the Lebanese will pave the way to dragging them towards sectarian conflicts.”

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri held talks Sunday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the French capital Paris, where the latter was holding preparatory meetings for the Geneva 2 Syria peace conference.

According to a statement issued by Hariri's office, the meeting was also attended by Russian Deputy FM Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian Foreign Ministry director of Mideast dept. Sergey Vershinin and the ex-PM's advisers Nader Hariri and George Shaaban.