Ziad Baroud has said that the settlement for the army to take over the second floor of a building affiliated with the telecommunications ministry did not mean that the crisis was solved.

Baroud, who relieved himself of his duties as caretaker interior minister last week, said that he doesn’t consider himself involved with the settlement because a solution to Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi’s rejection to abide his orders was not found yet.

President Michel Suleiman and caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud, who on Thursday absolved himself from his duties at the ministry, are reportedly “inclined to refer Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi to a judicial inquiry for repeatedly disobeying their orders to pull out the ISF Intelligence Bureau personnel of the second floor of the building affiliated with the telecom ministry, where OGERO Telecom is in charge of the installations of the third mobile network donated by China to Lebanon according to a cabinet resolution.”

Sources following up on this issue told An Nahar daily in remarks published Sunday that state prosecutor Saeed Mirza has asked Suleiman and Baroud to “file a lawsuit so that the judiciary can act accordingly.”

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday condemned a bomb attack near the Lebanese southern city of Sidon that seriously injured two Italian peacekeepers, pledging to "bring the perpetrators to justice."

"I condemn the attack on the U.N. peacekeepers which happened today in Lebanon," Ban said in a statement. "It is all the more deplorable because today is the International Day of the United Nations Peacekeepers."

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun urged on Friday President Michel Suleiman to take the necessary measures to address Thursday’s incident at one of the Telecommunications Ministry buildings at Adlieh, describing the event as a “premeditated crime”.

He said after an extraordinary FPM meeting on the incident: “According to the military law on rebellion and mutiny, yesterday’s incident is a crime that was part of a coup attempt.”

The March 8 forces said that as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, President Michel Suleiman should resolve the Telecommunications Ministry crisis and force all security forces to abide by his decisions.

A high-ranking March 8 source told As Safir daily in remarks published Friday that amid a caretaking cabinet and Interior Minister Ziad Baroud’s decision to absolve himself from his duties, the responsibility of Suleiman lies in addressing the issue as all security forces become his subordinates.

President Michel Suleiman has reportedly ordered Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi to clear a building affiliated with the Telecommunications Ministry from his men after they prevented Caretaker Telecom Minister Charbel Nahhas from entering the facility on Thursday.

Sources close to Suleiman told several Beirut dailies published Friday that after the president studied the issue legally and constitutionally, he told Rifi to abide by Caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud’s order to pull his forces out of the building in Beirut’s al-Adliyeh area.

President Michel Suleiman telephoned Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani on Thursday lauding his “national role” and “keenness on the safety of the state mainly with regards to the preservation of the constitution and institutions.”

A statement carried by the state-run National News Agency said that Qabbani, in his turn, stressed to Suleiman that Dar al-Fatwa and Muslims in Lebanon “appreciate and respect” the president for “safeguarding the nation, its people, the state and institutions.”

President Michel Suleiman stated on Wednesday that the internal developments in Lebanon require the formation of a government and the staging of comprehensive national dialogue.

He said before his visitors that this would help fortify the internal scene against local and regional developments.

President Michel Suleiman congratulated on Tuesday the Lebanese and Resistance on the occasion of Liberation Day, saying that the liberation of the South demonstrated that Lebanon has the popular capabilities to liberate its land and defeat the enemy.

He stressed: “The Israeli defeat has made it think twice before executing any attack on Lebanon.”

The circles of Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat have stressed that the Druze leader has repeatedly called for an end to the government “joke.”

In remarks to As Safir daily on Tuesday, the circles said: “It seems that no one has heard” Jumblat’s cry.