Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Friday noted that “the domestic obstacles hindering the cabinet formation process are gone,” adding that “if foreign obstacles are obstructing the cabinet formation process, we can help them resolve it.”

“When the cabinet is formed, you will know whether I have renounced my demands,” Aoun told reporters after an urgent meeting for his Change and Reform parliamentary bloc.

Lebanon imposed a ban on Friday on all vegetable imports from the European Union in response to an outbreak of E. coli poisoning that has killed at least 18 people, caretaker Agriculture Minister Hussein Hajj Hassan said.

"We have decided to ban the import of all types of vegetables from Europe," Hajj Hassan told Agence France Presse.

Premier-designate Najib Miqati, Caretaker Minister Mohammed Safadi and MP Ahmed Karami announced on Friday that they would boycott a parliamentary session on June 8.

The three officials said in a joint statement that they have decided not to attend the session “to preserve the role of institutions and out of their conviction not to widen the gap between the Lebanese.”

Hundreds of supporters of Syrian President Bashar Assad held a sit-in outside al-Omari mosque in downtown Beirut on Friday as anti-Assad protestors rallied inside the mosque against violence in the neighboring country.

The National News Agency said that around 200 people gathered outside the mosque shouting slogans in support of Assad and denouncing a sit-in organized by Hizb ut-Tahrir inside.

Sources close to Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri denied that OGERO Telecom Director General Abdul Monhem Youssef had handed over to Army Chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji the magnetic cards of the controversial second floor of a building affiliated with the telecommunications ministry in Beirut’s Adliyeh area.

The sources told al-Akhbar daily that Qahwaji didn’t request to be delivered the keys during his meeting with Youssef on Wednesday. They noted that the meeting was limited to “exchanging points of view.”

The stance of President Michel Suleiman on how to renew the mandate of Central Bank governor Riyad Salameh is not clear yet as some sources say that he prefers the adoption of “mobile draft-laws” while others claim that the head of state favors a cabinet session.

Sources close to Suleiman told As Safir daily on Friday that he rejects the adoption of the so-called mobile draft-laws and prefers “a consensual cabinet session” to only settle the crisis of the Central Bank governor if a new government was not formed.

The Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch has seized documents and computers from the offices of “Muslims Without Borders” near the town of al-Marj in the Central Bekaa.

The raid took place on Thursday afternoon after the ISF summoned several activists from the movement at the Intelligence Bureau headquarters in Beirut.

Former Mossad Chief Meir Dagan warned Israel against any military attack on Iran, stressing that any regional conflict with Tehran might drag Hizbullah and Syria into war.

During a conference at the Tel Aviv University Dagan said that a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities should only be considered as the last resort and after all other means and methods have been exhausted.

Premier-designate Najib Miqati has denied reports that a deal was reached to end the cabinet deadlock, saying he was still waiting for parliamentary blocs to provide him with the names of their candidates for the government seats.

“I haven’t been informed about anything,” Miqati told al-Akhbar daily in remarks published Friday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat is reportedly exerting efforts to expand the “centrist” bloc in the country that mainly includes President Michel Suleiman and Premier-designate Najib Miqati and Jumblat.

An Nahar newspaper reported that the PSP leader invited Phalange party leader Amin Gemayel to dinner at his residence in Clemenceau on Thursday in his ongoing efforts to expand the “centrist force” in the country.