The Higher Islamic Shiite Council’s objections against the Christian-Islamic summit’s closing statement reflected the turbulent political situation in Lebanon and raised questions over the possibility of holding another summit in the future, reported As Safir on Friday.

“Should the summit have been held without an agreement being reached or was it better that it not be held at all?” it asked.

A solution to the stalemate of the interior ministry portfolio gave rise to a dispute between President Michel Suleiman and Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun on the Maronite ministers.

An Nahar daily said that after Suleiman approved Aoun’s suggestion to name retired Internal Security Forces Maj. Gen. Marwan Charbel for the interior ministry post, he asked for a second Maronite minister to be part of his share in the new cabinet given that the FPM chief has claimed that Charbel is a consensual candidate and should not represent the president alone.

There were conflicting reports on Friday on whether a meeting between Premier-designate Najib Miqati and the envoys of Speaker Nabih Berri, Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun was held the day before.

An Nahar daily quoted March 8 sources as saying that the meeting that was scheduled to be held between Miqati, MP Ali Hassan Khalil, Hussein Khalil and Jebran Bassil on Thursday afternoon was postponed in a sign that the three envoys haven’t yet prepared answers to some specific points.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat expressed the Syrian officials’ annoyance over the delay in the Lebanese cabinet formation, after his return from Damascus Thursday night.

“The Syrian officials are aware of the true reasons behind the delay in the government formation,” according to information obtained by al-Liwaa newspaper on Friday.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman has no plans to visit Beirut, informed diplomatic sources told An-Nahar daily.

They denied that the former U.S ambassador to Lebanon is to arrive to Lebanon soon.

Premier-designate Najib Miqati and Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun are at loggerheads over several portfolios despite a solution to the interior ministry which the FPM chief and President Michel Suleiman were bickering over for the past several months.

Al-Liwaa daily said Friday that Miqati and Aoun are competing over the telecommunications portfolio which is part of the latter’s share in the caretaking cabinet.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon spokesperson Marten Youssef has reiterated that there is no fixed timeframe for the review of the indictment and the supporting material submitted by STL Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare to Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen.

Asked whether the indictment's amendments filed by Bellemare on March 11 and May 6 had anything to do with the current political vacuum in Lebanon or the uprisings in the region, especially in Syria, Youssef told Lebanese daily Sada al-Balad that STL's judicial measures are "based on evidence" and administered by judges abiding by the "highest level of impartiality."

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly on Thursday held talks with Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati and discussed with him the U.S. administration’s “developing view on the dramatic events that have occurred and continue to occur in the region,” the U.S. Embassy said in a statement after the meeting.

“Connelly expressed the U.S. government’s view that the governments of the region ought to listen to their people, refrain from violence, and engage in political dialogue in order to insure that the legitimate changes and reforms they demand can begin to be implemented,” according to the embassy’s statement.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen has ordered that STL Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare release more than 270 documents to Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed, Lebanon’s former General Security chief, STL’s press office said Thursday.

“Fransen ruled that Mr. Sayyed would receive some of the documents in the possession of the STL Prosecutor very soon. A large majority of these will be disclosed to Mr. Sayyed, whilst others can only be inspected by his counsel,” the press office clarified in a communiqué.

Nearly two months after the kidnapping of seven Estonian cyclists in Lebanon, the case remains shrouded in mystery with little information gleaned on their whereabouts or those behind the abduction.

The seven men, all in their 30s, were nabbed on March 23 shortly after entering Lebanon on their bicycles from neighboring Syria.