The Lebanese government is increasingly "subordinate" to Iran and Syria, who have been helping Hizbullah rearm, a top U.S. lawmaker told U.N. special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen.

Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the diplomat on Tuesday that she was "concerned" U.S. and U.N. efforts in Lebanon were failing to counter Hizbullah's growing power.

Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Ali al-Moqdad stated on Tuesday that the international investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is an intelligence tool aimed at harming the Resistance.

He told MTV that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is aimed at creating Sunni-Shiite strife, adding that its indictment has lost credibility in Lebanon.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun questioned on Tuesday the Special Tribunal for Lebanon's credibility, saying that accusations have been directed against Hizbullah of being behind former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination after the July 2006 war failed in destroying the party.

He said after the movement's weekly meeting: "We have never seen a country die because of one individual or one political line of thought."

UNIFIL spokesperson Neeraj Singh said Tuesday that the Israeli withdrawal from the northern part of the occupied border village of Ghajar is a nonnegotiable condition.

“It is imperative that the Israeli army withdraws from the area. This issue is nonnegotiable,” Singh told the state-run National News Agency.

The Syrian-Saudi initiative aimed at finding a solution to the Lebanese crisis is garnering more regional and international support, An Nahar daily reported Tuesday.

The newspaper said such support contributes to a solution that “ends the political and constitutional paralysis” that has struck the country.

Iran's parliament speaker Ali Larijani said Monday that the international tribunal and the indictment in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s murder case were American projects aimed at striking stability in Lebanon.

Following talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus, Larijani said Lebanese political parties were capable of solving their problems without foreign assistance.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri kicks off a three-day official visit to Paris on Tuesday in what is seen as the most significant step in international efforts aimed at stirring Lebanon away from its crisis.

“The French leadership will inform PM Hariri that it stands by him and his government,” French diplomatic sources told al-Mustaqbal newspaper.

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel stressed on Monday the importance of dialogue and fortifying Lebanon against any political and security repercussions caused by the indictment.

He said after holding talks with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir in Bkirki: "We hope that Arab and international efforts would help the Lebanese overcome their ordeal and we understand some fears over the indictment, but we must remember the martyrs."

Druze leader Walid Jumblat said he wants a settlement to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon before an indictment is issued.

He told As-Safir newspaper in remarks published Monday that he supports Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's comments which stated that a solution is necessary before the STL issues an indictment in the 2005 assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri believed that a CBC report implicating Hizbullah in the 2005 assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri was an attempt to “put pressure to expedite an indictment” by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Berri, in remarks published Thursday by As-Safir newspaper, said he believed that “repetitive leaks … aimed to push toward a speedy indictment.”