Energy Minister Jebran Bassil has stressed that cabinet ministers have no longer excuses to reject a $1.2 billion electricity plan after he provided answers to the contentious clauses of the project.

“Everything has become clear,” Bassil said in remarks to As Safir daily published Wednesday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat said on Wednesday that his ministers are expecting further explanations to elude any doubts they have on the electricity draft law.

The draft law proposed by MP Michel Aoun and backed by his son-in-law Energy Minister Jebran Bassil calls for earmarking $1.2 billion to the minister to build plants that would produce 700 Megawatts of electricity.

A cabinet session aimed at discussing a controversial electricity plan was postponed to September 7 after ministers failed again to agree on the allocation of $1.2 billion to Energy Minister Jebran Bassil.

President Michel Suleiman and Premier Najib Miqati held closed door talks ahead of the session at Baabda palace. Later, Ministers Bassil, Mohammed Fneish and Ali Hassan Khalil joined them.

Saudi King Abdullah held talks with former Lebanese Premier Saad Hariri, the first meeting between the two since the collapse of Hariri’s cabinet in January.

Hariri’s meeting with Abdullah was held at al-Safa Palace in Mecca. The discussion continued over an Iftar banquet thrown by the king, in the presence of a number of senior Saudi officials, the former prime minister’s press office said Tuesday.

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday said Hizbullah’s leadership “has put itself in the circle of accusation by protecting the suspects” indicted by the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the murder case of former premier Rafik Hariri.

In a statement issued after its weekly meeting at the Center House, the bloc slammed what it called Hizbullah’s “arrogant approach.”

The situation in Lassa is expected to escalate in light of an attack against a clergyman, Antoine Hakim, last week and the state’s failure to apprehend the attacker even though he is roaming the town freely, reported the Central News Agency on Tuesday.

March 14 General Secretariat coordinator Fares Soaid told the news agency that the residents of the town are awaiting “strict measures” from the Lebanese state against the attacker, “whose identity and whereabouts are known.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stated on Tuesday that society is not aware of the size of our efforts in government.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “We are working within a political society that has had shortcomings in dealing with its duties.”

Lebanon on Tuesday recognized Libya’s rebel National Transitional Council, which has almost taken full control of Libya and ended the 42-year reign of strongman Moammar Gadhafi, acting information minister Wael Abu Faour said after a cabinet meeting.

Briefing reporters after cabinet’s session in Beiteddine, Abu Faour said the government also decided to task Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour with discussing the case of the disappearance of Imam Moussa Sadr and his companions with the leaders of Libya’s new government.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea urged on Tuesday Libya to resolve the mystery of the disappearance of Imam Moussa al-Sadr and his companions, said the LF media department in a statement.

It added: “An issue of this gravity cannot but be a priority for us and the liberated Libyan people.”

British oil and gas explorer Cairn Energy said Tuesday it was seeking new exploration opportunities in Lebanon and possibly elsewhere in the Middle East after the company announced a return to profit.

The Edinburgh-based company, in the process of selling most of its Indian unit to miner Vedanta Resources, said it was heading a consortium seeking to take part in an expected round of bidding for exploration licenses in Lebanon.