Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri slammed on Saturday any renewal of the national dialogue that doesn’t address the defense strategy, stressing that there will be no civil war in Lebanon.

Asked by a twitter user if the opposition will join any national dialogue if it didn’t discuss the national strategy, Hariri said “there’s no need.”

Cabinet ministers engaged in a long debate on Tuesday over public spending amid a report that spending based on the 2005 budget was not enough in paying the salaries of civil servants.

A $5.9 billion 2011 spending bill hasn’t been approved by the parliament yet. But if approved, it would legalize spending by the government above 2005 levels.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri deemed as “ridiculous” Syrian President Bashar Assad’s speech on Tuesday.

He said via Twitter on Tuesday: “Assad is in denial as he has deemed all the developments in his country as a conspiracy.”

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri said on Monday that reports that he had escaped an assassination attempt were only news broadcasted through BlackBerry phones.

He said on Twitter that he will not “give any more information” about those allegations.

President Michel Suleiman is intensifying his efforts to resume the national dialogue in order to tackle a defense strategy for Lebanon and implement the decisions that were reached on the Resistance and Palestinians’ possession of arms, reported the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper on Saturday.

His calls for dialogue have so far been ignored by the rival March 8 and 14 camps over each side’s preconditions to hold the talks, seeing as the former refuses to discuss the Resistance’s possession of weapons, while the latter insists that it should be the sole topic of discussion.

A high-ranking Syrian security official condemned on Friday Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat’s recent calls to introduce “radical change” in the Syrian regime, saying that the Druze leader has once again allied himself with former Premier Saad Hariri and Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, reported the Kuwaiti Al-Seyassah newspaper on Friday.

The official said before a Lebanese Druze delegation: “When the time comes for settling scores, Jumblat will be dealt with in the same manner as Hariri and Geagea, as well as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffery Feltman.”

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.

Former premier Saad Hariri on Wednesday stressed that any attempts to stir up a confrontation between the army and the Sunni residents of border regions would be “unsuccessful like those behind them.”

Answering another question on Twitter on whether he believed that removing weapons from Palestinian camps and those of the “terrorist Salafist groups” had priority over removing Hizbullah’s arms, Hariri said: “All at once; any (illegal) weapons in the country are harmful. Only the state should possess weapons.”

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said that his meeting with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri in Saudi Arabia tackled the latest developments locally and in the region.

“We discussed our position if the cabinet wasn’t able to survive, the (2013) parliamentary elections, and the collapse of the Syrian regime and its aftermath,” Geagea told the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai in an interview to be published on Thursday.

Former Premier Saad Hariri slammed the Syrian regime on Monday for killing more protestors despite the presence of observers seeking to implement an Arab deal endorsed by Syria.

“It’s unbelievable,” Hariri tweeted, adding that the Syrian regime said it wants reform and signed the Arab protocol but continued its deadly crackdown on protestors.