Progressive Socialist Party chief MP Walid Jumblat rejected the exclusion of Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun from political decision-making to avoid further tension.

“Aoun should not be shut out,” Jumblat told As Safir daily published on Friday. “I understand his position from the signature of the decrees and I believe that some of them should be approved after consulting him.”

The cabinet agreed on Thursday to refer the trash disposal file to municipalities during a “productive” session that witnessed the boycott of ministers from the Free Patriotic Movement, Hizbullah, and their allies.

The government decided during the meeting that lasted over three hours to refer the waste management issue to municipalities that will agree to handle it.

The Change and Reform parliamentary bloc on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Tammam Salam of infringing on the Christian president's jurisdiction in the issuance of so-called presidential decrees, hours after the bloc's ministers and their Hizbullah allies walked out of a tense cabinet session.

“The decrees fall under the jurisdiction of the president and it is the only jurisdiction left for the president (after the Taef Accord) and the premier is infringing on it,” Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil said after the bloc's weekly meeting.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam said on Sunday that he refuses to be part of the “paralysis” governing the country and driving it to a total “collapse,” the Pan Arab al-Hayat daily said.

“The PM’s call for a cabinet convention on Thursday came out of his duty that he should not participate in the complete paralysis controlling the country and leading it to a breakdown,” visitors to Salam quoted him as saying.

The Free Patriotic Movement reached an agreement on Thursday for Jebran Bassil to be elected as its president.

Bassil, who is also the country's foreign minister, will succeed his father-in-law MP Michel Aoun as chief of the FPM.

Hizbullah's Loyalty to the Resistance bloc voiced on Thursday its support for efforts that seek to protect the government, while renewing its accusation against the Mustaqbal Movement of standing behind the country's ongoing political deadlock.

It said after its weekly meeting: “We urge the Mustaqbal party to cease evading holding dialogue with Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun.”

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has warned that the state would “collapse” if Baabda Palace remained vacant and the cabinet crisis was not solved, As Safir daily reported on Thursday.

“I have told Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that (Tehran's) lauding of the (Lebanese) government and its head should be interpreted with bringing a consensual president or else Lebanon would collapse and be destroyed,” Salam said, according to As Safir.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah reiterated that his ally Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun remains a strong candidate for the presidency.

“We will continue to back his candidacy,” Nasrallah, whose remarks were released by the party's press office Wednesday, said at the launching of a new university.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun denied on Tuesday that he is seeking to paralyze state institutions in an attempt to change the Taef Accord, saying his supporters' anti-government protests will continue.

“I totally reject this conclusion,” Aoun said. “Those paralyzing the institutions are the ones not respecting the Constitution and laws.”

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has said that he was procrastinating on calling for a cabinet session to allow consultations taking place among officials to resolve the government crisis.

“The state's prestige is at stakes amid a paralysis striking its institutions,” Salam told An Nahar daily published on Monday.