Lebanese officials have welcomed Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's speech amid hopes that it would lead to dialogue among the country's rival parties.

“The country needs positive rhetoric more than any other time and this is what I saw in Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's” speech, Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat told As Safir daily published on Tuesday.

Speaker Nabih Berri reiterated that quorum is secured in this week's parliamentary session to extend the legislature's term but he expressed resentment at some accusations that he was the sole person backing such an extension.

Berri told his visitors on Sunday that quorum is guaranteed for Wednesday's session which is aimed at discussing two draft-laws that call for a technical extension through the suspension of an electoral law deadline for a limited period and a long-term extension of the legislature’s mandate.

Kataeb party MP Sami Gemayel met on Thursday with Marada Movement chief MP Suleiman Franjieh on the third day of his tour on Christian leaders.

Gemayel headed to Zgharta's Bnashii for talks with Franjieh a day after he met with Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun.

Notre Dame University – Louaize and Saint Joseph University decided on Thursday to suspend student elections for the current academic year.

The decision comes in light of a quarrel between the Lebanese Forces and Free Patriotic Movement students on Wednesday over the erection of electoral banners at the main NDU campus.

Two brawls erupted Wednesday at the Notre Dame University in Louaize between students belonging to the Lebanese Forces and others from the Free Patriotic Movement.

LBCI television said the two-phase clash broke out over the issue of “raising electoral banners, two days ahead of the scheduled student elections at NDU.”

Kataeb party MP Sami Gemayel held talks on Wednesday with Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun, a day after meeting with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea.

Gemayel described his meeting with Aoun as “excellent,” pointing out that the circumstances compelled him to head to Rabieh.

The Change and Reform parliamentary bloc on Tuesday hailed the “preemptive operation” waged by the army in the northern regions of Tripoli and Minieh, calling for completing the security plan until the eradication of “all hubs of crime and terrorism.”

“We hope that the phenomenon of (fugitive Fatah al-Islam chief Shaker) al-Absi will not be replicated in Tripoli and Minieh,” ex-minister Salim Jreissati said after the bloc's weekly meeting, which was held only hours after bloc chief MP Michel Aoun met with Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan and Speaker Nabih Berri.

Deputy Speaker Farid Makari expressed doubt on Saturday that the presidential elections would be held in 2014, expecting that lawmakers will link the extension of the parliamentary tenure with the vacuum at the Baabda Palace.

“Extending the term of the parliament is a temporary solution until a new head of state is elected,” Makari said in an interview with An Nahar newspaper.

Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah met with Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji recently, media reports said on Thursday.

According to al-Akhbar newspaper, the meeting tackled the latest developments and highlighted the readiness of the resistance to defend Lebanon's southern, northern and eastern border alongside the army.

The Change and Reform parliamentary bloc on Tuesday vowed to resort to “all legal measures” to reject the proposed extension of the parliament's term, stressing that the issue “will not be a walk in the park” for the proponents of such a move.

“We are with holding the presidential vote, but it must be preceded by a (constitutional) amendment that allows direct election by the people,” the bloc's secretary MP Ibrahim Kanaan announced after the weekly meeting in Rabieh.