The head of the Constitutional Council regretted that the 10-member body failed to issue a ruling on petitions filed against the extension of parliament’s term, warning that it would lead to a “dangerous constitutional precedence.”

In remarks to al-Joumhouria daily published on Wednesday, Judge Issam Suleiman expressed “deep regret” that the council failed to take a decision on the extension over lack of quorum.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi received on Tuesday ahead of his trip to the Vatican a letter from Speaker Nabih Berri explaining the reasons behind the parliament's tenure extension.

“I don't mind the adoption of the 1960 law if you agree,” Berri told al-Rahi, according to local newspapers published on Wednesday.

President Michel Suleiman handed U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly on Tuesday a memo on the Syrian violations of Lebanese sovereignty.

A terse presidential statement said Suleiman delivered to the diplomat the memo that deals with “the violations and attacks carried out by all the warring parties in Syria.”

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met kicked off her second day official visit to Beirut by meeting with President Michel Suleiman at the Baabda Palace.

Ashton reportedly canceled her scheduled meetings with Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam and Caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour to visit UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura instead.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi demanded on Tuesday the formation of a neutral cabinet to bridge the gap between the March 8 and 14 alliances and achieve reconciliation.

“The March 8 and 14 coalitions sit on one table to save the country,” al-Rahi told reporters at Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport before heading to the Vatican.

The extension of parliament's four-year mandate is heading to validation this week amid another lack of quorum for the Constitutional Council which should discuss petitions against the extension.

A new meeting for the council was set for next Friday.

A delegation from the March 14 alliance on Tuesday handed President Michel Suleiman a memo that calls for Hizbullah's “immediate” pullout from Syria and the deployment of the Lebanese army along the border with the war-torn country.

The delegation to Baabda Palace was headed by al-Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora, who later held a press conference at the parliament along with several March 14 MPs to reveal the details of the memo, its second to Suleiman in nine months.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat slammed on Monday the political deadlock in Lebanon given the the local and regional instability.

He wondered in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa website: “Aren't we better off forming a national unity government instead of waiting for magical solutions that will not be achieved in Syria?”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea hailed on Monday President Michel Suleiman over his “sovereign stances,” calling on Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam to form his cabinet within two weeks or to refrain from the task.

“The presidency is the only position in this state that is alive as the caretaker cabinet isn't moving and the parliament is paralyzed,” Geagea told al-Akhbar newspaper in an interview.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi slammed both the March 8 and 14 alliances on Sunday for “tarnishing Lebanon’s image” and paralyzing state institutions in addition to shoving the country in Syria's crisis.

In a harshly worded sermon at Our Lady of Lebanon basilica in Harissa, al-Rahi called for “national reconciliation among politicians and mainly the so-called March 8 and 14 alliances that have tarnished Lebanon's image and its coexistence.”