United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams underscored on Wednesday the importance of maintaining stability in Lebanon and protecting the country from events in neighboring Syria.

He said after holding talks with Interior Minister Marwan Charbel: “There needs to be political consensus that what happens in Syria is not allowed to affect Lebanon.”

The March 14 General Secretariat criticized on Wednesday Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s “deceptive” statements over Lebanon’s commitment to fund the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, saying that the Lebanese people want the tribunal to be funded.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “We urge the Miqati government to immediately take the initiative and have Lebanon pay its dues in funding the STL, which the government said that it supports ‘in principle’.”

Speaker Nabih Berri confirmed on Wednesday that the cabinet would approve the electricity project by consensus and would not resort to voting during its session scheduled to be held at Baabda palace.

In remarks to al-Joumhouria daily, Berri said: “The electricity draft law will be approved through consensus by the cabinet. There won’t be any voting because voting would lead to differences inside parliament.”

A decree on the formation of the Internal Security forces command council was approved by President Michel Suleiman, PM Najib Miqati, Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi and Interior Minister Marwan Charbel on Tuesday.

An Nahar newspaper reported on Wednesday that the selected officers who were tasked to lead the units were already filling the same posts as caretakers.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon registrar Hermen von Hebel told the Lebanese officials that the funding of the tribunal isn’t limited to the current cabinet but goes back to the unpaid funds of the previous government and is worth $32 million, An Nahar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

A ministerial source told the daily that the cabinet will fund the STL probing the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri during the given timeframe.

Marada movement and Tashnag party ministers have informed Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun that they wouldn’t withdraw from the cabinet if his ministers took such an action, al-Liwaa daily reported Wednesday.

There were reports that Aoun’s ministers would pull out of the government if it failed during its session at Baabda palace on Wednesday to approve the electricity project proposed by Energy Minister Jebran Bassil.

AMAL movement MP Ali Khreiss escaped unharmed from a fire that erupted in his vehicle’s engine in the southern town of Bazourieh, media reports said Wednesday.

Voice of Lebanon radio station (93.3) reported on Wednesday that Khreiss was in the car with his daughter, but they were able to escape safely after a spark in an electric wire caused the fire.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Tuesday stressed that “the Libyan authorities will not be lax in helping to unveil the circumstances of the case” of the 1978 disappearance of Imam Moussa Sadr and his two companions “after restoring security and stability across Libya.”

Jumblat voiced his remarks in a statement issued by the PSP following a visit by the Druze leader to Libya, where he held talks with Mustafa Abdul Jalil, head of the rebel National Transitional Council, his deputy Abdul Hafiz Ghogha and a number of NTC members.

The al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday called on the Free Patriotic Movement to “disavow” retired Brig. Gen. Fayez Karam, who was sentenced Saturday by the Military Court to two years in jail on charges of spying for Israel.

“The verdict issued against Fayez Karam requires the FPM to quickly disavow him due to his high treason,” the bloc said.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun accused on Tuesday the sides seeking to obstruct the electricity draft law of wanting to pass the law at an “insignificant cost,” stressing that the movement will not compromise over the law or granting the people electricity.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “Our commitment to the electricity project is not political maneuvering and the government must give an answer tomorrow during the cabinet session.”