March 14 General Secretariat coordinator Fares Soaid expressed surprise on Saturday over the presence of an armed branch affiliated in the Jamaa Islamiyah.

“We stress that the March 14 forces are struggling to move to the state which is the only competent side tasked with defending Lebanon,” a statement by Soaid said.

Senior Hizbullah official Mohammed Yazbek slammed on Saturday United Nations Chief Ban Ki-moon’s scheduled visit.

“Ban, (U.N. Special Envoy) Terri Rod Larson, and the messenger of evil and conspiracy’s (U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs) Jeffrey Feltman are unwelcomed in Lebanon,” Yazebk said.

23 Syrian civilians were shot dead on Saturday as the regime held funerals on Saturday for 26 people killed in a Damascus suicide bombing that it called a "terrorist attack," promising an "iron fist" response to the second such incident in two weeks.

Local Coordination Committees announced that Syrian security forces shot dead 23 civilians including a child.

Syrian National Council leader Burhan Ghalioun said Friday that Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s recent remarks that the Syrian opposition had presented its credentials to the West were “inappropriate coming from the leader of a resistance movement and a spiritual figure.”

In an interview on Al-Arabiya television, Ghalioun added: “Neighboring Lebanon is a real brother of Syria and it is more than a neighbor.”

Former prime minister Saad Hariri on Friday denied what he said was a “rumor” of a failed attempt on his life in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

“You might have heard the rumor about my so-called assassination in Riyadh. My presence here, now, is a natural denial of this lie,” Hariri said in English on the social networking website Twitter.

Syrian activists on Friday took to the streets across the country in a bid to "internationalize" their cause after the rebel Free Syrian Army urged the Arab League to admit its observer mission is a failure and to turn to the United Nations.

But there has been no let-up in security force fire against demonstrators, with at least 35 people shot dead on Friday, according to the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground.

President Michel Suleiman lauded on Thursday the government’s performance so far, despite the criticism it has come under.

He hoped that it would “make the appointments of top civil servants in gradual steps and not in one single haul.”

The cabinet on Wednesday approved the executive decrees for the law on oil excavation in Lebanon’s territorial waters.

The parliament endorsed the bill in August 2011.

Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn on Tuesday said the army has “clear information” about the presence of al-Qaida members in the Bekaa border town of Arsal, noting that “the army raided Arsal in search of Hamza Qarqouz,” who is believed to be an al-Qaida militant who had fled from Syria to Lebanon.

In an interview on OTV, Ghosn added: “It is our duty as politicians and officials to announce that there is an infiltration by some extremists, including al-Qaida members, through the borders, and it is our duty not to conceal things.”

Energy and Water Minister Jebran Bassil on Tuesday said he visited Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkirki to “inform him of the deliberate obstruction” of the plans proposed by the ministers of the Free Patriotic Movement in cabinet.

“The seat of the patriarchate is the place that gathers everyone and preserves the principles, that’s why we have to inform His Eminence of all the vital information and the fears and concerns we live daily with as ministers, whether concerning the administration or the appointments,” Bassil told reporters after the meeting.