Former Internal Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi accused on Saturday Hizbullah of obstructing efforts to form a cabinet and of obstructing the functioning of the state.

He said in a statement: “Hizbullah has become addicted to obstructing the functioning of the state and it sought to turn the Interior Ministry portfolio into an obstacle in forming a government.”

President Michel Suleiman has voiced his disappointment with the ongoing deadlock over the formation of a new government, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Saturday.

Informed sources told the daily that he had expressed to political factions that “he can no longer tolerate political maneuvers.”

A new agreement has reportedly been reached over the naming of a potential interior minister in a new government after the March 8 camp's rejection of former Internal Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi, said al-Joumhouria newspaper on Saturday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat led efforts late on Friday night to reach an agreement over naming Mustaqbal MP Nouhad al-Mashnouq instead of Rifi.

A soldier was wounded Friday evening when a hand grenade was hurled at an army post in the northern city of Tripoli.

“Unknown assailants lobbed a hand grenade at an army post in the al-Ghoraba area in Tripoli, which wounded a soldier in the leg,” state-run National News Agency reported.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed Friday his rejection of any president who might be in the service of any foreign “tutelage” and urged Speaker Nabih Berri to convince Hizbullah to withdraw its fighters from Syria and start implementing the Baabda Declaration.

“As the Mustaqbal Movement refuses to be at the image of Hizbullah, we refuse to be at the image of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or al-Nusra Front, and refuse any call to involve the movement and Sunnis in Lebanon in the war between Hizbullah and al-Qaida,” Hariri said in a speech via video link that was broadcast during a rally organized by the March 14 forces to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri.

March 14's MPs announced Friday that they have decided to submit to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon a petition demanding the expansion of the jurisdiction of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to cover all the assassinations that targeted March 14 figures after Dec. 12, 2005 – the day MP Gebran Tueni was murdered.

The announcement was made during a mass rally commemorating the ninth anniversary of former premier Rafik Hariri's assassination at the BIEL exhibition center in Beirut.

A Syrian army offensive in the Qalamun mountains between Damascus and the Lebanese border has sparked an exodus of more than 2,700 refugees, the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday.

The new exodus adds to nearly one million Syrians who have already sought refuge in Lebanon from the three-year conflict in their homeland, according to U.N. figures.

President Michel Suleiman called on Friday for “appropriate measures” to be taken against a user who has posted a Facebook cover photo of himself kissing the statue of Virgin Mary.

A Baabda palace statement said Suleiman called for certain “procedures and appropriate measures” against Ali Itawi.

U.S. Ambassador David Hale recently visited ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's grave in downtown Beirut on his 9th assassination anniversary as the mission reaffirmed its support for the efforts exerted by the international tribunal.

Hale toured the Mohammed al-Amin mosque and the memorial “to reflect on this period in Lebanon's hist” and to pay respect to deceased victims, the embassy said on twitter on Friday.

Investigations with the prominent member of the al-Qaida-affiliated Abdullah Azzam Brigades, Naim Abbas, have led to unveiling a terrorist attack planned to happen on Sunday, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported.

According to a report published by the daily on Friday, the extremist group was planning to detonate an explosive-laden vehicle near Hizbullah's al-Manar television in Jnah neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs.