Hizbullah has mediated with the Free Patriotic Movement to prevent an escalation in the dispute over the electricity draft law proposed by FPM chief Michel Aoun, March 8 sources have told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat.

The dispute began when Aoun threatened to pull his ministers from the cabinet after opposition MPs and lawmakers allied with him rejected the draft law that allows Energy Minister Jebran Bassil, who is Aoun’s son-in-law, to spend $1.2 billion on building power plants without referring to the cabinet.

Premier Najib Miqati’s sources have expressed surprise at the Free Patriotic Movement’s campaign against him after a draft law proposed by FPM chief Michel Aoun on providing $1.2 billion to the energy minister to build power plants drew criticism from lawmakers.

The sources expressed surprise at the campaign saying that Miqati has supported the project but has only conditioned the introduction of measures that would guarantee transparency in the spending of the $1.2 billion which are aimed at building power plants that would generate 700 Megawatts of electricity.

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr ordered the arrest of two officers and nine guards on Sunday after spending the night along with his assistants at Roumieh prison to investigate the escape of five inmates.

Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi had asked judicial authorities to investigate with top officers and low-ranking officials at the prison to determine who was responsible behind the escape.

The Palestinian foreign minister has said that the Palestinians expect their bid for United Nations recognition will receive a boost from Lebanon's taking over the presidency of the U.N. Security Council.

Riad Malki said Saturday the Palestinians will press ahead as planned with their independence bid in late September.

Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi has denied that he discussed with Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah the issue of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the national dialogue which he described as a “rubber band.”

Discussions focused on “bilateral relations, the complicated situation in Lebanon and the developments in Syria,” Aridi told An Nahar daily about his talks with Nasrallah on Saturday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has said that he didn’t hold talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad during his last visit to Damascus for the simple reason that he didn’t have any appointment with him.

When asked by An Nahar daily published Sunday about the reasons for not meeting with Assad, Jumblat was surprised by the tumult on the issue, saying: “There was no appointment with President Assad during this visit.”

State Minister Ahmed Karami slammed reports saying that there is a team that wants electricity and another that doesn’t, noting that it’s not acceptable from MP Michel Aoun to warn the cabinet of withdrawing from it if it didn’t approve what he wants.

“Everyone agreed on giving Aoun the amount of money he requested, but the discussions are around how to provide the money and its distribution and the mechanism of organizing it,” Karami told Akhbar al-Yawm News Agency on Saturday.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said on Saturday that his statements on Antelias blast were according to “preliminary security information”, stressing that the relevant judicial authority has the final decision in determining the truth.

Charbel’s press office issued a statement saying “what he (Charbel) mentioned relied on preliminary information built on preliminary security data, facts and testimonies obtained at the moment of the incident.”

Five inmates have escaped from Ward “D” in the Roumeih prison on Saturday, however, two have been detained.

Internal Security Forces said a sixth inmate attempting to flee had been caught inside prison grounds and was under interrogation.

Four hand grenades that were not set to detonate were found in the Beirut River – Jisr al-Wati on Saturday.

Soon after the discovery, security forces hurried to the scene where they cordoned off the area as explosives experts from the Internal Security Forces sought to inspect the devices discovering that they were not set to explode.