Loyalty to the Resistance bloc leader MP Mohammed Raad urged Lebanese leaders on Friday not to cooperate with the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, saying Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare’s requests contradict with the cooperation protocol signed between Lebanon and the tribunal.

During a press conference he held at the parliament building, the Hizbullah lawmaker said Bellemare’s requests from four caretaker ministers for information and documents came seven years after ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination and amid turmoil in the Arab world.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea criticized on Thursday Hizbullah’s possession of arms, saying that if this issue is not resolved, then any side attempting to constructive governmental functioning will fail.

He told France 24 and Radio Monte Carlo: “Its arms can be used to obstruct the democratic process in Lebanon or take it off its course, similar to what happened a month an a half ago.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that Iran is communicating with Hizbullah in a bid to shape events in the Arab world.

It was the first time that Clinton detailed alleged efforts by Tehran to meddle in the three-month wave of Arab revolts that has toppled presidents in Tunisia and Egypt, convulsed Libya and shaken Yemen, Bahrain and Oman.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon lamented that the latest confrontation between March 8 and 14 forces was accompanied by “sectarian” and “inflammatory” remarks.

In his 15th report on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701, Ban said Lebanon has been witnessing a political crisis over the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Lebanon's Shiites are hoping that the revolt in Libya may shed light on the fate of their revered spiritual leader Moussa al-Sadr, whose 1978 disappearance soured relations between the two countries.

"We have long been waiting for Moammer Gadhafi the tyrant to fall or be killed in the hope of knowing what happened to our Imam," said Hussein Maana, 51, a resident of the southern Lebanese village of Maaraka, the hometown of Sadr's family.

Israeli President Shimon Peres has said the anti-government protests sweeping the Arab world that have toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt are an "opportunity for peace" in the Middle East.

"We believe that the biggest guarantee of peace is having democracy in our neighbors. We are happy to witness this democratic revolution which is taking place in the Arab world," he said in an address to the Spanish parliament on Tuesday.

Israel's prime minister on Sunday accused Iran of trying to exploit the recent instability in Egypt by sending two warships through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, saying he views the move "with gravity."

The Iranian ships were expected to make a rare crossing through the canal on Sunday or Monday en route to Syria — an Iranian ally and Israel's enemy to the north. Egypt confirmed the ships would be allowed through the strategic passage.

Outgoing premier Saad Hariri stressed Thursday that "it is unacceptable that weapons become a means to influence political life in the country," noting that the Lebanese "cannot build a country that way, as a country should have one army, one authority and one State."

"The weapons of any party must not become a means to undermine civil peace and the democratic system," Hariri added.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati is reportedly preparing two draft cabinet line-ups – one includes March 14 ministers along with the Hizbullah-led alliance and the other is only made up of March 8 figures.

Miqati visited President Michel Suleiman on Tuesday night and informed him about his consultations with the different parties on the formation of the cabinet.

Leaked U.S. embassy cables carry U.S. suspicions that Hizbullah raised funds and maintained contacts among Chile's small community of Islamic fundamentalists.

An unclassified embassy cable dated February 27, 2006, and released Tuesday by WikiLeaks, said a "radical fundamentalist presence" was centered in the northern city of Iquique, and to a lesser degree in Santiago.