MP and Former Minister Marwan Hamadeh expressed relief after his meeting with a delegation from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Thursday.

Hamadeh, who escaped an assassination attempt in 2004, told al-Joumhouria newspaper on Friday that “it was a day full of conflicting emotions.”

Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Energy Minister Jebran Bassil quarreled over the electricity file during a cabinet session that was held at the Baabda Palace on Thursday, forcing President Michel Suleiman to intervene to end the dispute.

Earlier this week, parliament failed to approve an electricity draft law proposed by FPM leader MP Michel Aoun that allows Bassil to receive $1,200,000,000 to implement a project on producing 700 Megawatts of electricity.

European diplomatic sources did not rule out an Israeli aggression on Lebanon in September warning the Jewish state could target state institutions, including Lebanese army barracks.

The sources told An Nahar daily published Friday that the new Israeli war would not only target Hizbullah arms depots and officials but also hit the water and electricity sectors and army positions.

Al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Samir al-Jisr on Friday denied telling al-Joumhouria daily that former premier Saad Hariri and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat had held talks in Turkey last weekend.

In the remarks attributed to him by the newspaper, al-Jisr allegedly wondered why people would be surprised if two high ranking officials met. "Al-Mustaqbal movement has kept a thin thread with Jumblat," the daily quoted him as saying.

Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun informed Baabda palace that he rejected to attend the presidential Iftar on Thursday because he refuses to sit at the same table with “some thieves and public money squanderers,” As Safir daily reported.

Aoun also told the FPM’s OTV station that he didn’t attend the Iftar in Baabda because his “mood” does not allow him to sit with officials that criticized his proposal of a draft-law that would allow the energy ministry to raise a $1.2 billion fund to build plants to produce 700 megawatts of electricity.

A Syrian activist stressed the Syrian regime launched a wide money transfer operation to Lebanon and Iran since the beginning of the anti-regime protests in March, the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on Friday.

“The amount of money that was smuggled by (Syrian President Bashar) Assad and the Syrian regime as of the beginning of the popular uprising against him, reached more than $23 billion,” Secretary of the Syrian Conference for Change in Antalya Mohammed Karkouti told the daily.

The Higher Defense Council stressed on Friday consolidated measures to prevent arms smuggling and preserve the safety of U.N. peacekeepers deployed in the South.

The council, which met at Baabda palace under President Michel Suleiman, said in a short statement that “discussions focused on the security situation in the country in general and the role of the army, Internal Security Forces and the rest of security apparatuses in preserving the nation.”

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to head to Beirut next week to meet with top Lebanese officials, As Safir newspaper reported on Friday.

“Abbas will visit Lebanon on Aug. 16 and 17,” Palestinian sources told the daily.

An explosion that rocked the town of Antelias on Thursday was apparently the result of a personal dispute between car dealers. The blast killed two people who were in possession of an explosive device at the time of its detonation.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel told the cabinet that the explosion was a result of a financial and personal dispute between several people, including some car dealers.

President Michel Suleiman on Thursday stressed that “participation in national dialogue is a matter of national will, not something imposed by outside forces,” noting that his recent national dialogue call was not aimed at “empowering a political camp at the expense of another political camp … but rather at seeking possible solutions to the problems before they worsen.”

In a speech at the annual Iftar banquet at the presidential palace in Baabda, Suleiman said that the recent talks and consultations he conducted with the various political parties “have demonstrated the need for further discussions and deliberations regarding (the re-launching of national) dialogue.”