Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun slammed Thursday the so-called “neutral” and “independent” politicians in the country, in an indirect attack against the ministers named by President Michel Suleiman, Premier Najib Miqati and Druze leader MP Walid Jumblat.

“Nowadays, nearly everyone is confronting us because we are changing the bad pattern into a good pattern. We are confronting the corrupts and we’re not afraid of them, as we’re ethically immunized and no one can accuse us of anything,” Aoun added at a student ceremony organized by the FPM in Dbaye.

Syrian troops early on Thursday were seen planting mines along a region bordering the northern Lebanese area of Wadi Khaled, a local Lebanese official told Agence France Presse.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said the troops began planting the mines at dawn in an area facing two Lebanese villages -- Knaysseh and al-Hnayder.

Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali urged Lebanese security agencies on Thursday to reconsider their investigations into the smuggling of weapons from Lebanon to Syria.

“The amount of smuggled arms to Syria and the amount unveiled by the Lebanese investigation calls for a review by the Lebanese security agencies,” Ali told Hizbullah’s al-Manar TV station.

Unknown assailants tossed a hand grenade at the car of Mustaqbal official Fadi Shibli in the town of al-Qaroun Wednesday night, reported the National News Agency on Thursday.

No one was injured in the incident and the damage was restricted to the car.

Hizbullah is preparing its military arsenal and fighters to launch an operation to occupy the Galilee area in Israel, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Thursday.

The party’s Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s on February 16 sent “military notification… declaring that preparations to occupy the Galilee is ongoing,” a source close to Hizbullah told the daily.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati confirmed to his predecessor PM Saad Hariri that he supports the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, An Nahar newspaper reported on Thursday.

“I announced it from day one, and I insist on my position,” Miqati informed Hariri on different occasions by sending him messages via different mediators, the daily said.

Lebanon’s joint border force has closed two illegal crossing points on the Lebanese-Syrian border in the northeast, the National News Agency reported.

NNA said Wednesday that two bulldozers closed the crossings near the village of Majdal in Wadi Khaled on the northeastern border with Syria in an effort to combat smuggling.

President Michel Suleiman has called for democratic changes in the region but without bloodshed saying democracy should be achieved through peaceful means.

On his way back to Beirut after extending condolences to Saudi King Abdullah over the death of the crown prince, Suleiman told An Nahar’s reporter: “There is no escape from democracies in the Arab world but such democracies should be (achieved) through peaceful means away from bloodshed.”

The March 14-led opposition stressed the need to resume dialogue in Lebanon but among members of the “new parliamentary majority camp,” al-Mustaqbal newspaper reported on Thursday.

March 14 leadership sources told the daily in comments on Speaker Nabih Berri’s call for all-party talks, that “the dialogue is a vital necessity, but among the new majority camp… amid the disputes that proved they are incapable of resolving even the smallest issues.”

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah discussed with Syrian President Bashar Assad the stance of the Lebanese parliamentary majority from the funding of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, al-Akhbar daily reported on Thursday.

The newspaper said that Nasrallah visited Damascus around 10 days ago. Discussions between the two men focused on the regional developments and the March 8 forces’ rejection to fund the STL.