Al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Nabil de Freij has sought to find a way out for the cabinet dispute over the controversial transportation and education allowances by proposing an urgent draft law to be discussed by the parliament next Wednesday.

According to al-Liwaa newspaper published on Friday, de Freij’s proposal to set the amount of the transportation and education allowances might force the cabinet to endorse the draft law, ending the three-week crisis.

Speaker Nabih Berri stressed on Thursday that Lebanon is committed to the drilling of oil within all of its maritime borders.

He said that “Lebanon is determined to invest in its petroleum and gas wealth.”

Prime Minister Najib Miqati reiterated on Thursday that averting the cabinet crisis depends on the ministers who should implement the government’s decisions, According to An Nahar newspaper.

“I am definite that (Free Patriotic Movement leader) MP Michel Aoun, who is keen to maintain the cabinet’s credibility, will give (Labor) Minister Charbel Nahhas the right advice,” Miqati told the daily.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati said on Wednesday that the cabinet crisis which erupted earlier in the month hasn’t been resolved yet.

“The cabinet’s (work) is ongoing and there is no problem in the government,” Miqati said after holding talks with Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon cooperation protocol is expected to pass automatically without any local fuss on the issue amid the cabinet’s impasse, according to newspapers published on Monday.

The Lebanese authorities will not submit any comments on U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon’s decision to extend the mandate of the court probing the assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri, sources told As Safir newspaper.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati said on Tuesday that there’s no specific timeframe for ending the cabinet deadlock, stressing that Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas can resolve the crisis by signing the transportation allowance decree, according to al-Mustaqbal newspaper.

“The prospects for resolving the current cabinet crisis is blurry, and there is no specific timeframe to resolve it,” Miqati told the daily.

Speaker Nabih Berri has set next Wednesday as the date for a parliamentary session to discuss a number of proposals and draft laws.

The parliament will convene on Feb. 22 at 10:30 am, his office announced.

Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas slammed Prime Minister Najib Miqati and President Michel Suleiman without naming them, saying that Lebanon isn’t a “Gulf state” where the ministers are just employees that take orders, according to As Safir newspaper published on Monday.

“Let them try to make me resign, if they can guarantee two-thirds of the ministers’ votes in the cabinet,” Nahhas reiterated.

Speaker Nabih Berri continued on Monday to insist on not mediating in the cabinet crisis, saying Premier Najib Miqati’s decision to suspend government sessions was “unjustified.”

“I hold onto my decision not to act as a mediator on the government crisis because Miqati’s decision on the suspension of sessions is unjustified,” Berri told As Safir daily.

Premier Najib Miqati returned to Beirut on Sunday, a day earlier than schedule, to contain the tension in the northern port city of Tripoli that has left at least three people dead.

Upon his return from a two-day official visit to Paris, Miqati held a telephone conversation with Speaker Nabih Berri and informed him that he came to Beirut a day earlier to end the “abnormal situation” in the capital of the North.