Lebanon’s ambassador to Bahrain, Aziz al-Qazzi, has said that six Lebanese expatriates were requested to leave Bahrain, after relations between the two countries deteriorated following the Hizbullah leader’s support for the Shiite-led Bahraini opposition.

While al-Qazzi didn’t confirm to An-Nahar daily the reasons behind the expulsion, he told The Daily Star newspaper in remarks published Monday that “security reasons” forced the Bahraini authorities to take such a decision.

An Internal Security Forces member and a man wanted for the death of several soldiers were killed in a gunfight in the Bekaa town of Majdal Anjar on Sunday night.

An Nahar newspaper said Monday that an ISF Information Branch patrol chased Darwish Khanjar and his companion after they robbed Suzan Jebara of her Honda CRV at gunpoint.

The March 8-backed list won the Beirut Engineers Syndicate elections on Sunday, as the list backed by the rival March 14 camp garnered the majority of votes in the North Engineers Syndicate polls.

Free Patriotic Movement’s Elie Bsaibes, the March 8 candidate for the chairmanship of the Beirut syndicate, garnered 6,699 votes while Lebanese Forces candidate Imad Wakim, who was backed by the March 14 forces, received 6,412 votes.

Premier-designate Najib Miqati has expressed frustration over the attempts of some parties to hold him responsible for the delay in the formation of the new government.

An Nahar daily said Sunday the prime minister-designate believes that these parties are taking advantage of Miqati’s decision not to make any statement by throwing accusations at him and linking the delay to personal interests or pressure from Syria.

France informed President Michel Suleiman that he has a pivotal role in guaranteeing a balance of power between the different political factions in the country, pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported Sunday.

Informed French sources told the newspaper that President Nicolas Sarkozy sent a letter to his Lebanese counterpart with his envoy Patrice Paoli, stressing that Paris considers Suleiman a “guarantor of institutions.”

A woman was killed in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Saturday night from celebratory gunfire during Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s televised statement.

The National News Agency said Suaad Abdullah Bashir, 47, was severely injured at 9:30 pm in Bourj al-Barajneh’s Othman street.

A March 14 official has stressed that the new government would be shaped according to Hizbullah’s will unlike what the Shiite party leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has claimed.

In remarks to An Nahar newspaper on Sunday, the officials said: “The cabinet will not be as (Premier-designate Najib) Miqati wants it to be. It will surely be a government based on Hizbullah’s desires.”

Head of the Israeli defense ministry's political-security bureau Amos Gilad has said that Iran and Syria were supplying Hizbullah with missiles via planes and ships, adding that the Shiite party has more than 45,000 missiles.

“This poses a threat to Israel,” Gilad told the Kuwaiti al-Rai daily in remarks published Sunday.

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah expressed pride in the party’s ties with Iran and slammed Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri for allegedly “making a big mistake” in harming Lebanon’s relations with Tehran.

“We are proud of our relationship and alliance with Iran and Syria,” Nasrallah said in a statement broadcast on television on Saturday night.

President Michel Suleiman stressed on Saturday the need for calming the political rhetoric in Lebanon and returning to dialogue.

He said: “Internal affairs can only be settled through dialogue, cooperation, and national consensus.”