The Maronite Bishops Council hoped on Wednesday that the new cabinet would be granted confidence by parliament in order for it to tackle the people’s concerns.

It said after its monthly meeting headed by Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi: “We hope it will assume its responsibilities during this dangerous period in Lebanon and the region.”

Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Hasan Fadlallah said Wednesday that for the first time in Lebanon a government was formed away from any foreign interference, adding that the cabinet formation disappointed Washington.

“The U.S. will not find partners to cover up any security agreements,” he said during the second day of policy statement discussions at the parliament.

Al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Jean Oghassabian told Premier Najib Miqati on Wednesday that he should quit his post but if he decides to stay “history will have no mercy on you.”

The international tribunal isn’t an enemy, he said in his address at parliament during the second day of discussions of Miqati’s policy statement.

Jamaa Islamiyah MP Imad al-Hout said Wednesday that the group has decided to abstain from voting on the cabinet’s policy statement at parliament in an attempt to give Premier Najib Miqati a chance to review a series of stances made in the ministerial statement.

Al-Hout told several local media outlets that the Jamaa Islamiyah can neither condemn the Special Tribunal for Lebanon without any evidence nor defend it.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat has ordered his MPs and members of his party not to issue statements on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and simply abide by his recent comments on the matter during his press conference on Friday, reported the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa newspaper on Wednesday.

March 8 camp sources said that the MP’s warning against falling for the trap of international agendas is inapplicable for the current government as it is a cohesive cabinet, adding: “There is no room for dialogue with a new minority that decided to lead Lebanon against the Resistance’s arms.”

Lawyer Salem Salim and his family escaped unscathed after coming under heavy machine gunfire in their house near the southern port city of Sidon, the lawyer told An Nahar daily published Wednesday.

Salim is a key witness in the assassination of the four judges on June 8, 1999 inside the South Lebanon Criminal Court at the old Justice Palace in Sidon. He had suffered severe injuries.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said his country considers any political measures that lead to meddling in Lebanon’s internal affairs as falling in Israel’s best interest.

“Interfering in Lebanon’s internal affairs, creating sedition and shaking its unity achieve the Israeli interest in the region,” the spokesman said.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s speech on Saturday intended to ruin the reputation of Special Tribunal for Lebanon President, Judge Antonio Cassese, by saying that he’s a “dear friend of Israel,” tribunal sources told An Nahar newspaper.

Nasrallah, during his televised speech Saturday night, cited a speaker at a security conference in Herzliya, Israel, as regretting Cassese’s non-attendance, as proof that the STL judge, was biased toward the Jewish state.

Premier Najib Miqati has hailed the statements made by lawmakers on the first day of parliamentary sessions to discuss the cabinet’s policy statement.

The statements were “part of the democratic game,” Miqati told As Safir daily published Wednesday, saying he would give the appropriate response to the comments made by MPs at the end of the three-day session.

President Michel Suleiman has said it was inevitable for officials to resort to the national dialogue to solve the country’s political problems, As Safir daily reported Wednesday.

Suleiman’s visitors told the newspaper that the president said the politicians could discuss all controversial issues and find their appropriate solutions through the national dialogue.