During a visit to Bkirki on Friday to congratulate the new Maronite patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on his election, Deputy Head of the Higher Shiite Islamic Council Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan stressed that "Bkirki is a sanctuary for all the Lebanese."

"We must open a new page of cooperation and harmony as the country can only rise through its Muslim and Christian wings," Qabalan added after meeting both al-Rahi and outgoing patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare has submitted to STL Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen a confidential report explaining why disclosing documents to Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed "could amongst other things prejudice ongoing or future investigations or could put people's lives at risk," STL's press office said Friday.

"The Special Tribunal for Lebanon can confirm that the Prosecutor submitted a confidential and ex parte application to the Pre-Trial Judge on March 10, 2011," the press office said in a communiqué.

Hizbullah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem noted on Friday that there was nothing worth responding to at the March 14 rally last Sunday, saying that the party “has not and will not do so.”

He said: “We are not concerned with what they said and what happened at the event.”

The Lebanese Forces issued a clarification on Friday over the recent WikiLeaks cable published in Al-Akhbar on Friday in which LF leader Samir Geagea was quoted as saying that he supports turning Hizbullah into a problem on the internal Lebanese scene in order to weaken it.

The LF statement said that the cable revealed that Geagea does not employ double standards in his political rhetoric as the claims in the report are the same statements he still issues this very day.

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed on Friday that any project outside the state has failed.

He said at a popular rally before tens of thousands of supporters at the end of his three-day visit to Tripoli: “Every sect in Lebanon that has pursued its own agenda has failed … all agendas established alongside the state have only brought about tragedy and destruction in Lebanon.”

President Michel Suleiman congratulated on Friday the Lebanese army for uncovering the Israeli spy system in the southern town of Shamaa on Thursday.

He said: “The discovery once again exposes Israel’s ongoing violation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701 and Lebanon’s sovereignty before the international community.”

Internal Security Forces arrested a top Lebanese drug trafficker during a raid in Beirut’s southern suburbs at dawn Friday, the ISF general-directorate said in a statement.

It said an ISF patrol arrested the trafficker, identified by his initials as A. Aa., during a raid on his house in Bourj al-Barajneh.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat did not deny on Friday the recent WikiLeaks report that quoted him as saying he hoped Israel would continue its assault on Lebanon during the July 2006 war in order to weaken Hizbullah militarily.

The MP said: “I take full responsibility for these statements that are a dark mark in my political career and I hope my position today would eliminate any harm I may have caused the Resistance, Syria, and the noble resistance fighters.”

The head of Hizbullah's parliamentary bloc MP Mohammed Raad expressed hope on Friday that the party would resume dialogue with Bkirki and consolidate ties.

Raad visited Bkirki at the head of a Hizbullah delegation to congratulate Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on his election.

The Lebanese Ambassador to the Ivory Coast Ali Ajami assured that the Lebanese expatriates in the African country are safe and they are not being targeted in the violence.

He told As Safir in remarks published on Friday: “The situation is difficult and worrying, but it is not as dramatic as the media is making it seem.”