The March 14-led opposition is seeking to propose a draft law on funding the Special Tribunal for Lebanon probing the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri to find a solution to the $32 million Lebanon is obligated to pay for the international court, An Nahar newspaper reported on Thursday.

“They (March 14 camp) are discussing the possibility of presenting a draft law to the parliament to fund the STL, like (Free Patriotic Movement leader) MP Michel Aoun did in the issue of the electricity project,” the daily said.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati urged Lebanese officials to return to the language of reason and logic and abandon violent and sectarian rhetoric, during Wednesday’s cabinet session.

He noted that “an unhealthy mood is affecting Lebanon’s political society,” criticizing the obvious “cursing language” between factions.

The Syrian State television will broadcast on Saturday the confessions of an alleged Israeli spy who conspired to assassinate top Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh, State news agency SANA reported.

“The Israeli spy will reveal some of the details of the conspiracy against Syria,” SANA said on Wednesday.

The Progressive Socialist Party is shrugging off reports and rumors about deterioration in the relations between PSP chief Walid Jumblat and Hizbullah over his remarks on the Shiite party’s weapons.

Ministers Ghazi Aridi and Wael Abou Faour, who are loyal to Jumblat, stressed before a cabinet session held on Wednesday that ties between the Druze chief and Hizbullah officials are “good,” An Nahar daily reported.

The drivers’ union suspended its nationwide strike that was scheduled to be held on Thursday after reaching a late-night deal with Prime Minister Najib Miqati for the finance ministry to begin receiving the requests of fuel subsidy payments starting Monday.

The strike was aimed at protesting the government’s failure to deliver on a monthly LL400,000 fuel subsidy promised in May. Public drivers were seeking to hold the strike between 6:00 am and 12:00 pm.

A French investigating judge has charged a Lebanese businessman suspected of a role in a bribery scandal surrounding the 1994 sale of French submarines to Pakistan that may have been linked to an attack that killed 15.

Ziad Takieddine said he was satisfied with the judicial action since it gives him access to the investigators' file.

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon Spokesperson Neeraj Singh on Wednesday denied a media report that he had warned Lebanese officials of “the possibility of ending UNIFIL’s mission if it was attacked again.”

“These remarks are totally baseless and I did not give such a statement to anyone,” Singh said, in remarks published in Arabic by state-run National News Agency.

Is reliance on the clout of outside forces and arms outside state control part of national dialogue or part of playing with fire, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s representative at a mass commemorating the 29th anniversary of the assassination of ex-president Bashir Gemayel asked rhetorically.

Slain president Gemayel “strived throughout the crisis to restore the unity of land, the sovereignty of people and the prestige of the state,” Patriarchal Vicar General Roland Abu Jaoude said at the ceremony in the Beirut district of Ashrafieh on Wednesday.

Phalange Party MP Nadim Gemayel condemned on Wednesday the possession of illegitimate arms in Lebanon, saying that President Michel Suleiman and Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s positions on Hizbullah’s weapons won’t change the fact that they are illegitimate.

He said after a mass commemorating the 29th anniversary of the assassination of his father, former President Bashir Gemayel: “They believe that the army cannot protect Lebanon and therefore allowing one faction to carry arms encourages others to turn to arms as well.”

Former Prime Minister Omar Karami stated on Wednesday that centrism in governing Lebanon “does not work.”

He made his statements in reference to Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s description of himself as a “centrist” figure in Lebanon.