A leaked U.S. Embassy cable published exclusively in Al-Akhbar on Friday revealed that then U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman had presented the American administration with a list of suggestions for reconstructing Lebanon after the July 2006 war.

According to the WikiLeaks cable, dated August 14, 2006, the ambassador said that despite the ceasefire between Hizbullah and Israel, the situation could easily spiral out of control should either of them cross any red lines, which would discourage countries from sending troops to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

Defense Minister Elias Murr stressed that the Lebanese army cannot properly establish itself in the South alongside Hizbullah’s armed presence, reported a leaked U.S. Embassy cable published exclusively in Al-Akhbar on Friday.

He added that the army’s position in the South should be bolstered “as soon as possible” in order to destroy Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s “rude and arrogant” rhetoric displayed during his August 14, 2006 speech, said the WikiLeaks cable dated August 15, 2006.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stated on Thursday that the March 14 camp does not deny what was reported in the recently published WikiLeaks cables.

He said during a press conference: “All that was said in the cables, I repeat every day. All that we stated is true and we are free to perceive them as we wish.”

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned on Thursday that Israel will not tolerate militant attacks, a day after a bombing in Jerusalem left one dead and as Gaza rockets pounded Israel.

"We have to respond," Barak said at a joint press conference with visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates shortly after two Grad rockets slammed into the southern port city of Ashdod.

A leaked U.S. Embassy cable published exclusively in Al-Akhbar on Thursday reported Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as saying that Syria would enter a war with Israel should it invade Lebanon.

Assad informed his biographer American journalist David Lesch that the image of the invincible Israeli army was destroyed during the July 2006 war, said the WikiLeaks cable dated July 25, 2006.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat reportedly said immediately after the end of the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah that if the Jewish state pulled out from occupied Lebanese territories, it would abolish an essential pressure point off the Shiite group.

Israel “is speeding up the withdrawal,” Jumblat said during a meeting dated August 15, 2006, according to a WikiLeaks cable published by al-Akhbar newspaper on Thursday.

One person was killed and more than 30 were wounded when a bomb ripped through a bus in Jerusalem on Wednesday, just hours after Palestinian factions vowed revenge for two deadly Israeli raids on Gaza.

The bombing came several hours after two Grad rockets fired by militants in Gaza had slammed into the southern city of Beersheva, prompting Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu to warn that anyone who attacks the Jewish state would learn it has an "iron will" to defend itself.

Twenty people were hurt, three of them seriously, when a bomb exploded next to a bus in Jerusalem, medics said, after Gazan militants threatened retaliation for a series of deadly Israel raids.

"The bomb was inside a bag which was left at the bus stop," Israel's Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch told reporters at the scene.

Israel on Wednesday handed over to U.N. peacekeepers two Lebanese shepherds who were kidnapped near the border in southern Lebanon a day earlier.

Lebanese citizens Leon Alam, 35, and 55-year-old Mohammad Zahra were handed over to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon via the Naqoura border crossing.

A leaked U.S. Embassy cable published exclusively in Al-Akhbar Wednesday revealed that Health Minister Mohammed Jawad Khalifeh had informed then U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman that House Speaker Nabih Berri was disputed with Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

The WikiLeaks cable dated August 19, 2006, reported Khalifeh as saying that Nasrallah believes himself to be “greater than Salaheddine and all of us.”