Prosecutors at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon asked the court on Friday to summon Lebanese officials to The Hague to hear from them about their powers in the implementation of arrest warrants against four Hizbullah suspects in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination.

During a hearing held at the STL headquarters, Prosecution trial lawyer Iain Morley told three judges and two alternate judges, that “there is an opportunity to assist Lebanese authorities to hearing from them as to what their powers are.”

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon Trial Chamber will make a decision in due course on whether in absentia proceedings should begin in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s Feb. 2005 assassination case, the STL said on Friday.

The Trial Chamber’s decision would be based on the oral submissions at a hearing held on Friday, the written submissions that were filed by the Prosecution and Defense Office earlier this month and the filings from the Pre Trial judge.

A high-ranking military source has stressed that no Syrian activists have been kidnapped in Lebanon only saying that the General Security Department had arrested Syrian nationals on criminal charges.

“Based on Lebanese Army reports, there are no kidnapped Syrians in Lebanon and the Intelligence Branches in the areas haven’t recorded any case of kidnapping,” the source told An Nahar daily published Friday.

Speaker Nabih Berri said that Lebanon is committed to disavow itself from any decision taken by the Arab Foreign Ministers in Cairo on Saturday over the Syrian turmoil.

“Lebanon supports implementing reforms (in Syria), the regime has to implement them and must be given the chance to do so to evade any negative repercussions,” Berri told As Safir newspaper on Friday.

The cabinet will hold an extraordinary session on Friday at Baabda Palace to discuss the electoral draft law which is based on proportional representation, al-Liwaa newspaper reported.

The cabinet added three more items to its agenda including the draft law on determining the conditions for acquiring citizenship, suggested by Interior Minister Marwan Charbel.

Conflicting reports emerged on Friday over the visit of U.S. Treasury Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing Daniel Glaser to Beirut.

An Nahar newspaper reported on Friday that the discussions that took place between Glaser and Lebanese bankers were positive.

Naharnet Exclusive Report – Leidschendam:

A high-ranking official from the office of the Prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon said Judge Daniel Bellemare and his team have made up their mind to totally reject any plans to immediately begin in absentia trials of the four Hizbullah suspects in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s Feb. 2005 assassination.

Pope Benedict XVI is planning to visit Cuba and Mexico in spring 2012 but there are currently no plans to visit Lebanon, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said on Thursday.

"The nuncios of Mexico and Cuba have been charged in recent days with informing the highest religious and political leaders in the two countries that the pope is examining a concrete project to visit," he said in a statement.

Former premier Saad Hariri said Thursday he would definitely vote for Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea if he runs for president in 2014.

Asked on Twitter whether he would vote for Geagea if the opposition March 14 camp won back the parliamentary majority in the 2013 elections, Hariri said: “I WILL VOTE FOR HIM IN HEART BEAT IN CAPITAL LETTERS.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Thursday advised Hizbullah to allow Premier Najib Miqati’s government to pay Lebanon’s annual 49% share of funds to the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

“We’ve heard Hizbullah describing the suspects (in the 2005 assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri) as ‘sacred’, but they must understand that those who were martyred, starting from Rafik Hariri all the way to (slain MP) Antoine Ghanem … are also ‘sacred’,” Jumblat said in an interview on Al-Arabiya television.