Speaker Nabih Berri has said the election of a new president next year is more than a necessity, advising consensus on the name of the next head of state and reiterating that the resistance is a right consolidated by the Taef Accord.

“Holding the elections is more than a necessity and all MPs should attend the session to elect the new president,” Berri told several local newspapers published on Tuesday.

Caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil stated on Monday that the possibility of holding a cabinet session to address the oil and gas exploration file lies in the hands of the Mustaqbal Movement.

He said: “This issue will only be addressed when the March 14 camp, mainly the Mustaqbal Movement, decides so.”

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed all-out support for the cabinet to hold a session to tackle the delicate situation in the country and the petroleum file.

“I don't want to precede the matter before I hold talks with (Caretaker Prime Minister Najib) Miqati, but in principle, I support the holding of a cabinet session,” Berri told As Safir newspaper on Monday.

Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam has warned that the country will head towards more paralysis if the new government was not formed amid looming presidential elections next year.

In an interview with As Safir newspaper published on Friday, Salam said: “The deadlines are pressing and they are intertwining with the deadline of the presidential elections.”

A prominent Hizbullah military official was assassinated at midnight on Wednesday near his residence in Hadath in Beirut's southern suburbs.

“Around 12 a.m. Hajj Hassan Hollo al-Laqqis was assassinated near his house in Sainte Thérèse neighborhood in Hadath while he was on his way back from his work,” a statement issued by Hizbullah's press office said.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat said on Wednesday that politicians are incapable of resolving any of the local crises, calling for reconciliation among the residents of Tripoli to end the sectarian clashes.

“President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Najib Miqati and I are working on the same level but we are incapable of ending the standstill,” Jumblat said in an interview with al-Akhbar newspaper.

Speaker Nabih Berri has proposed a plan to salvage the northern city of Tripoli that has been engulfed in deadly sectarian clashes linked to the war raging in neighboring Syria, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Monday.

The daily said that Berri made his proposal to Caretaker Premier Najib Miqati before his latest visit to Tehran.

Head of the Mustaqbal bloc MP Fouad Saniora on Sunday held talks with Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain al-Tineh on the latest developments in Lebanon, as a media report said the speaker wanted to put the ex-PM in the picture of a "mediation" he was tasked with in Iran.

"During his visit to Iran, Berri informed its leaders that he was willing to exert efforts to achieve Iranian-Saudi rapprochement, and he was tasked with this mission, but he did not want to bypass the Mustaqbal Movement so he held a meeting with Saniora," MTV reported.

A meeting is scheduled to be held next week between members of the Change and Reform and National Struggle Front blocs, lawmaker Ibrahim Kanaan told al-Joumhouria newspaper published Saturday.

It would be the fourth such meeting between MP Michel Aoun's Change and Reform and other blocs.

Speaker Nabih Berri has refused to discuss about fears that next year's presidential elections were under threat, saying he would deal with the issue when the Constitutional deadline approaches.

In remarks carried by al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Saturday, Berri said that “he would discuss about the elections before March 25, when the 60-day Constitutional deadline for the election of a new president starts.”