Acting Labor Minister Nicolas Fattoush and President Michel Suleiman signed on Thursday the transportation allowance decree, which was a point of contention between ex-minister Charbel Nahhas and Prime Minister Najib Miqati.

Fattoush said following talks with Miqati at the Grand Serail that the PM informed him about his approval of the resignation of Nahhas and stressed the importance of “boosting the cabinet’s work.”

British and French authorities are coordinating with the Lebanese Red Cross to transfer four wounded foreigners from Syria to Lebanon, An Nahar daily reported Thursday.

The newspaper said the injured include three British nationals and a French.

March 14 opposition lawmaker Marwan Hamadeh told parliament on Wednesday that the Lebanese army intelligence in the North was putting restraints on the work of journalists in the area.

According to An Nahar daily on Thursday, Hamadeh was referring to an incident that took place earlier in the week when BBC was seeking to shoot a documentary on the Syrian refugees in the border region of Wadi Khaled.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat described the Russian veto on a U.N. Security Council resolution on the crisis in Syria as “doomed.”

“It formed an alibi for the West to stand idly by… We all know that they can interfere at least to impose a ceasefire and save Homs and the Syrian people,” Jumblat told An Nahar newspaper on Thursday.

Speaker Nabih Berri adjourned on Thursday the parliamentary session to March 5 after lack of quorum following a decision by the majority of March 14 alliance opposition lawmakers to leave the legislature in an attempt to block the adoption of a bill that would legalize $5.9 billion spending by the government above 2005 levels.

Lebanon hasn’t had any official budget since that year.

Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan, who has proposed a draft law on the transportation allowance, rejected an alleged deal to garner a parliamentary support for his suggestion in return for the legalization of spending made above 2005 levels.

In remarks to An Nahar daily published Thursday, Kanaan said: “I don’t think that any official or lawmaker can tolerate the offense of such a settlement that hits sound governmental effort allowing cabinet spending and targets accountability and transparency.”

The resignation of Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas paved way for officials to avert a three-week cabinet crisis that had threatened the collapse of the government as the names of his successor were being speculated on Thursday.

“No candidate has been chosen yet, but it might happen in the upcoming few hours,” Free Patriotic Movement sources told An Nahar newspaper.

The official resignation of Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas on Wednesday was accompanied by signs of a political settlement reached between the top leaders that would witness a March 14 support for a draft law on the transportation allowance in return for a drop of March 8 majority demands to see records of billions of dollars spent by the governments of former Premiers Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri.

President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati accepted the resignation of Nahhas who had been refusing to sign a transportation allowance decree linked with a wage hike made by the cabinet.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati formally received from the “Change and Reform” bloc the resignation of Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas.

Miqati’s media office stated that “After consultations between the Prime Minister and the President, the resignation of Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas has been accepted.”

The United Nations on Wednesday extended the mandate of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The tribunal faces strong opposition from Hizbullah, but in announcing the three-year extension of the inquiry, U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon said he was determined to "send a message that impunity will not be tolerated.”