Future News television on Monday quoted the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon as saying that “judicial procedures are not bound by timeframes and only these procedures can define what to be published and when.”

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza, who paid a sudden visit to the Grand Serail on Monday, denied to Future News that he had received any document from the STL. “There is no decisive information on the release date of the indictment,” Mirza told the TV network.

The Phalange Party stressed on Monday the importance of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in putting an end to assassinations in Lebanon, saying that it is not aimed at seeking revenge.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “The STL seeks to achieve justice and stability in Lebanon.”

Israel has adopted a new form of psychological warfare on Lebanon through telephoning a number of southern residents on their mobile phones and informing them that they have won a financial reward from a Saudi bank.

Israeli security sources added that the residents are then asked to call a number, 4382094678, to receive their reward.

Shaul Mofaz, head of Israel’s parliamentary Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, on Monday hoped the Sunni majority in Syria would take power, ending the domination of President Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority, an outcome he said might bring an end to Syria's alliance with Shiite Hizbullah and Iran.

"The Sunnis are more moderate and this is good for Israel as it opens a possibility of future peace talks and preserving the quiet," Mofaz said in an interview with Agence France Presse.

An Israeli bulldozer fortified on Monday an Israeli surveillance position adjacent to the southern town of Maroun al-Ras where a monument for Palestinians killed on May 15 was erected, reported the National News Agency.

The Israeli activity was accompanied by overflights by its fighter jets over the regions of Marjeyoun and Nabatieh.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams reiterated on Monday that U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon expects the new cabinet to announce its full commitment to international resolutions.

“I reiterated my expectation and the expectation of the Secretary-General that the government will restate its full support and commitment to the full implementation of 1701 in its ministerial declaration,” Williams said following talks with Prime Minister Najib Miqati at the Grand Serail.

The head of the Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Mohammed Raad stated on Monday that the formation of the new government “surprised the sides that had been meddling with the country’s future for the past few years.”

“They didn’t expect the new majority to form a cabinet, but they have since grown accustomed to it after the foreign powers that told them that it won’t be formed realized that they are incapable of thwarting its establishment,” he added.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat traveled on Saturday after instructing his representatives in the cabinet not to accept any “explosive” policy statement draft, the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily reported.

The newspaper said Monday it had no information about Jumblat’s destination.

Unknown assailants opened fire on Monday at policemen from the Drug Control Office of the Internal Security Forces as it was preparing to destroy cannabis fields in al-Olaiq village in the eastern city of Baalbeck.

The National News Agency reported that the “force and the tractors that accompanied it came under an armed ambush after unknown assailants opened fire at it.”

Prime Minister Najib Miqati has failed to bridge the gap between the cabinet’s centrist forces and mainly Hizbullah over the clause on the international tribunal in the policy statement, ministerial sources said.

The sources told al-Liwaa daily that consultations that Miqati held over the weekend away from the media spotlight failed to strike a deal between the two sides. The premier received a proposal from the Shiite party on the clause but the suggestion does not meet with Miqati’s own vision, the sources added.