Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stated on Tuesday that no progress has been achieved in the government formation, stressing that the FPM is not obstructing the process.

He said after the movement’s weekly meeting: “The movement is seeking to regain central rights that have been lost.”

Former minister Mario Aoun stressed on Tuesday that he described Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s remark on Caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud as “unprecedented” but not “irresponsible.”

“I didn’t say it was irresponsible,” Aoun told Voice of Lebanon radio station. “It is unprecedented … We haven’t gotten used to such remarks from a high religious authority.”

Former minister Mario Aoun on Monday described Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi's recent remarks on caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud as "unprecedented."

Aoun said the patriarch's comments in support of Baroud were unprecedented given the fact that al-Rahi is the highest Maronite religious authority in the country, suggesting that the remarks were not only aimed at voicing support for Baroud's return to the interior ministry in the new cabinet.

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said Monday that Lebanese officials informed him that Beirut authorities were making every effort to find seven Estonian tourists kidnapped in the Bekaa valley last week.

Paet met with President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri, Premier-designate Najib Miqati and Caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati has reportedly said that he can’t ignore the latest stance of Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi who threw his support behind Caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud.

Ad-Diyar daily on Monday quoted Miqati as saying that he “can’t ignore Patriarch al-Rahi’s stance about giving a portfolio to Baroud in the government.”

The delay in the formation of the government does not amount to a political crisis, well-informed sources told As Safir daily as sources close to Premier-designate Najib Miqati and Speaker Nabih Berri confirmed that this week will be decisive.

The sources of Miqati and Berri told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat in remarks published Monday that optimism on a possible cabinet formation this week was linked to the level of mediation by Miqati’s allies to solve the deadlock created by Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun’s demands.

The political consultations over the government formation have entered a “truce” after Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun’s departure for Dubai on Friday, said a source monitoring the government formation process.

The consultations will resume as soon as Aoun returns from his trip, revealing that the meeting between Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati, Hizbullah official al-Hajj Hussein al-Khalil, Speaker Nabih Berri’s advisor MP Ali Hasan Khalil, and caretaker minister Jebran Bassil on Thursday led to an agreement over methods to end the deadlock over the government formation.

A meeting between Premier-designate Najib Miqati and representatives of the March 8 alliance’s leaders did not make major progress on resolving the cabinet formation deadlock, media reports said Friday.

Miqati met on Thursday with the Free Patriotic Movement leader’s envoy, Caretaker Minister Jebran Bassil, and the assistants of the Hizbullah leader and the speaker, respectively Hussein Khalil and MP Ali Hassan Khalil.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati will launch intense consultations with Lebanese officials on Thursday in an effort to break the impasse on the cabinet formation process, An Nahar daily said.

The newspaper said that talks between Miqati and Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday paved way for a series of meetings that the premier-designate is scheduled to hold with officials involved in the formation of the government.

The interior ministry expressed Tuesday "extreme regret over the breach of the (U.N.) investigation's confidentiality through publishing information and sometimes proceedings which are supposed to be confidential," after a report published by The Daily Star newspaper accused Interior Minister Ziad Baroud of "procrastination" in responding to requests by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

As the ministry criticized media leaks, it stressed that it will continue to perform its duties, asking the caretaker cabinet to address the issue "as no minister should be unwarrantedly accused in light of the split in the country over such a major topic."