Lebanese Democratic Party leader Talal Arslan accused President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Tuesday of obstructing the work of the cabinet by keeping sessions suspended.

“Under no circumstances is it acceptable to suspend cabinet sessions, particularly at this critical stage in the region,” Arslan, who is allied with Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, said in a statement.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon cooperation protocol is expected to pass automatically without any local fuss on the issue amid the cabinet’s impasse, according to newspapers published on Monday.

The Lebanese authorities will not submit any comments on U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon’s decision to extend the mandate of the court probing the assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri, sources told As Safir newspaper.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi met with the founder of the Guardians of the Cedars party, Etienne Saqr, during his visit to Cyprus, An Nahar daily reported on Tuesday.

Saqr, 74, who goes by the nom de guerre of Abu Arz, has been living in the island state since 2000 when he escaped his hometown of Ain Ibel on the border with Israel similar to thousands of Lebanese who fled following the liberation of south Lebanon that year.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati said on Tuesday that there’s no specific timeframe for ending the cabinet deadlock, stressing that Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas can resolve the crisis by signing the transportation allowance decree, according to al-Mustaqbal newspaper.

“The prospects for resolving the current cabinet crisis is blurry, and there is no specific timeframe to resolve it,” Miqati told the daily.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said Tuesday that he would visit the northern port city of Tripoli in the next few days to inspect the army units and security forces deployed there following the deadly clashes between two rival neighborhoods.

In remarks to al-Liwaa daily, Charbel also said that he would visit lawmakers, officials and clergymen in the capital of the North.

The opposition March 14 coalition will mark on Tuesday the 7th anniversary of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination at a gathering of politicians, diplomats, activists and academicians that will be held in BIEL.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who is recuperating at his house in Paris from fractures in his leg, will make a speech through a giant screen at the event that starts at 4:00 pm.

Former premier Saad Hariri on Monday stressed that he would only accept to return to the national dialogue table if the sole topic was Hizbullah’s arms and announced that he would “definitely” return to Lebanon.

“Those trying to oust me from Lebanon have been paying the price so far and those who tried to erase Rafik Hariri’s project are ousting themselves from Syria,” Hariri said in an interview with Future News television in Paris on the eve of the seventh assassination anniversary of his father, ex-PM Rafik Hariri.

The Phalange Party on Monday noted that the recent violence in Tripoli had exposed the extent of the security chaos in the country and the “frightening” proliferation of weapons in the northern city.

In a statement issued after its weekly meeting, the party’s political bureau warned that such incidents would import the Syrian crisis into Lebanon.

A fugitive was killed and another wounded on Monday when security forces opened fire on a car that tried to escape a checkpoint in the Beirut eastern suburb of Nabaa, state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA identified the slain man as Munir Munir Zoaiter and the wounded accomplice as Ali Hatem Zoaiter, saying they were wanted on several arrest warrants for involvement in murder and theft.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat condemned on Monday Lebanon’s position on the Arab League decision on Syria, saying that it had failed the Syrian people.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “Lebanon shied away from its political, humanitarian, and moral responsibilities towards ending oppression against the Syrian people when it voiced reservations on the Arab League decision.”