Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel shied away on Friday from accusing any party of launching rockets on Baabda district, saying several parties have in their possession such rockets.

“Many factions own similar rockets,” Charbel told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).

President Michel Suleiman's speech marking Lebanon's 68th Army Day didn't highlight any new stance and will only press foreign countries to neutralize the country from the ongoing turmoil in the region, Baabda Palace sources said on Friday.

“They are the same old stances that he has reiterated on different occasions,” sources close to him said in comments published in al-Joumhouria newspaper.

President Michel Suleiman's speech marking Lebanon's 68th Army Day drew criticism on Friday from the March 8 alliance, which considered that it solely targeted the resistance.

Sources close to Hizbullah said in comments published in al-Joumhouria newspaper that the president's stances come amid a “systematic” foreign campaign against Hizbullah.

Two rockets fell in the Baabda area on Thursday evening, one of them near the presidential palace, in the third such incident in less than two months.

“A rocket fell near the (army's) Command and Staff College in al-Rayhaniyeh as another rocket hit the garden of Elham Freiha's house, and both were fired from al-Mwanseh area in Dhour Aramoun,” state-run National News Agency reported.

President Michel Suleiman criticized Hizbullah without naming it on Thursday, saying it was time for the Lebanese state and the army to be the sole decision-makers on the use of the nation's capabilities.

“It has become urgent to approve a defense strategy after the resistance's arms went beyond Lebanon's borders,” Suleiman said during a ceremony marking the 68th anniversary of the Lebanese army’s founding.

Caretaker Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn issued on Wednesday an administrative decision to extend the mandate of Army chief General Jean Qahwaji for two years after the parliament failed to take such a move.

The decision calls for postponing for two years Qahwaji's retirement and that of Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Walid Salman, which expires on August 7.

The increasing burdens caused by the soaring number of Syrian refugees fleeing the conflict in their country to Lebanon prompted the Lebanese state to prepare for a conference in cooperation with the U.N. refugees agency that aims at helping the country to confront the crisis.

Caretaker Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour said in comments published in As Safir newspaper on Tuesday that the conference seeks to differentiate between those who are refugees and those who are not.

The Higher Defense Council tackled on Monday ways to support the armed forces and discussed the eradication of cannabis plantations in the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Discussions focused on “providing the army and the rest of the armed forces with their needs,” said a terse statement read by the council's Secretary-General Maj. Gen. Mohammed Kheir.

A warning by Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun to challenge the extension of Army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji's term is not likely to materialize after he was ditched by his allies, sources said Monday.

The informed sources told An Nahar daily that the Shura Council by-laws allow a person affected by the extension to make his challenge, which in this case does not involve Aoun.

President Michel Suleiman returned to Lebanon on Saturday night from a brief trip to the United States, reported the daily An Nahar Sunday.

It said that he traveled to the U.S. on Monday in order to receive medical treatment for his left eye at a hospital in Washington D.C.