The oldest member of the Maronite bishops synod is expected to call for a conclave to elect a new patriarch within 15 days after Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir on Saturday.

An Nahar daily said Sunday that the synod would be held in Bkirki and could start with a three-day retreat and then followed by election sessions for 15 days.

Al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Samir al-Jisr snapped back at Premier-designate Najib Miqati, saying there could be no justice in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination case without Lebanese commitment to the international tribunal.

“How could we talk about justice without the court?” al-Jisr wondered in remarks published by An Nahar daily on Sunday. “Justice comes through the tribunal.”

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri is expected to make an important speech that would reflect the decisions reached at the March 14 lawmakers’ meeting scheduled for Sunday.

An Nahar newspaper said Hariri would make the speech on Monday afternoon.

Israel has expressed concern over Russia’s decision to fulfill its contract to supply Syria with cruise missiles, saying they could end up in the hands of Hizbullah.

"The question of these missiles' delivery to Syria really has triggered a negative reaction in Israel," the Israeli ambassador to Moscow, Dorit Golender, told the Interfax news agency.

Pope Benedict XVI accepted Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir’s resignation, reported L’Obsservatore Romano newspaper on Saturday.

The Pope said in a letter to Sfeir: “I accept your free decision that reflects your humility.”

President Michel Suleiman arrived in Kuwait Saturday at an invitation by Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah to attend the country’s 50th independence, national, and liberation day celebrations.

The president’s visit is scheduled to last one day.

A high-ranking French source revealed that concerned circles in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon are continuing their investigation to uncover the circumstances surrounding the leak of voice recordings conducted by the investigation into the assassination into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, reported al-Liwa’ Saturday.

The recordings were leaked and broadcast by a Lebanese television station.

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s sources refused to respond to the positions issued by Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Thursday when he described as “silly” Hariri’s demands in return for abandoning the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

They told the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat in remarks published on Saturday that Hariri “will not forget Jumblat and his supporters’ stand after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.”

Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati announced that the new government is ready, but he is still pursuing negotiations because he does not want to cause a dispute with anyone, reported Al-Akhbar Saturday.

He added: “The reasons that drove me to run for the premiership are the same ones that are driving me to continue in my mission.”

House Speaker Nabih Berri noted on Friday that the March 14 camp’s announcement of its refusal to take part in Cabinet will facilitate and speed up Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s efforts to form the government, reported the daily An Nahar on Saturday.

Furthermore, he questioned before his visitors on Friday the slowness in the government formation process seeing as the names of potential ministers all belong to one camp.