Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel on Sunday called for the formation of an “interim” and “all-embracing” cabinet that would prepare for the upcoming important junctures, especially the presidential election.

“We are before three essential and critical junctures that would decide Lebanon's future: the presidential vote, the formation of the new cabinet and the presidential elections,” Gemayel said during a press conference.

President Michel Suleiman on Sunday announced that he has asked security forces to protect Lebanese towns near the border with Syria “from any attack.”

“Suleiman has asked military and security officials to take all the necessary measures to protect Lebanese villages and towns near the border with Syria,” said a message published on the president's Twitter account.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi said Sunday a real official does not take advantage of the people to seek his own interests.

In his sermon during mass held in Bkirki, al-Rahi lamented that Lebanese officials seek the support of their followers to get personal benefits at the expense of the nation.

Officials close to Premier-designate Tammam Salam expressed a cautious optimism on the government formation process and said ex-Premier Saad Hariri proved his good intentions when he announced he was ready to share power with Hizbullah.

Salam is “cautiously optimistic” over the latest developments after nine months of stalemate on the cabinet formation, the officials told al-Mustaqbal daily published on Sunday.

The political violence that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is confronting is the source of sharp divisions among the Lebanese, U.S. Ambassador to Beirut David Hale has said.

“I don't think that the Tribunal caused the divisions in Lebanon,” he told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat published on Sunday.

Clashes renewed on Saturday evening on several fighting frontiers in the northern city of Tripoli, as heavy sniper activity was recorded in the region.

“Fighting is taking place in al-Maloula, Baal al-Darawish, Satarco, Talaat al-Omari, the surroundings of al-Nasiri mosque, Souq al-Qameh, Hara Barranieh, the Hariri Project, al-Baqqar and al-Amercan in the city,” the state-run National News Agency detailed.

Beirut and Mount Lebanon will become buried in waste after Sukleen announced on Saturday that it will suspend collecting garbage in both governorates.

“People's sit-in near the Nahmeh landfill and blocking the road in front of the company’s trucks for the second day in a row lead to the piling up of garbage that were ready to be plumbed,” a statement released by Sukleen explained.

Two computers with Hebrew writings were found on Saturday in a southern disputed area on the border, an army communique said.

“The Indonesian patrol in the UNIFIL found a suspicious object in a disputed area near (the southern border town of) Adaisseh,” the statement detailed.

East Arsal was the area that targeted several Bekaa regions with rockets, the Lebanese Army Command said in a communique issued on Saturday.

The army pointed out that a “specialized army commission estimated that the shelling on Arsal, Ras Baalbek and Fakiha areas came from east Arsal.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea described on Saturday remarks by ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri regarding the cabinet formation process as a “good will gesture,” stressing that his party will not participate in any cabinet that doesn't include “the slightest political change.”

“Hariri's statements are considered a good will gesture and not an agreement on including the army, people, resistance formula in the new cabinet's ministerial statement,” Geagea said in a press conference in Maarab.