Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday called for postponing debate over the thorny issue of the security and military appointments to September, as Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil stressed that the Free Patriotic Movement will not attend any cabinet session that does not have the file on the top of its agenda.

“During his meeting with Minister Bassil, Speaker Berri suggested postponing the security appointments to September, as Bassil insisted on the FPM's stance regarding the issue of appointments,” Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) reported after talks in Ain el-Tineh.

Speaker Nabih Berri has called for the punishment of the Roumieh prison guards and their backers for torturing Islamist inmates and stressed that the law should also be enforced on rioters.

“Such practices are totally rejected,” Berri told officials who visited him in Ain el-Tineh on Tuesday. “If they take place in some countries, then Lebanon should not follow suit.”

Prime Minister Tammam Salam is setting the agenda of a cabinet session that he intends to chair next week following an agreement with Speaker Nabih Berri, An Nahar daily reported on Tuesday.

The newspaper said that Salam's move comes amid the launching of consultations to hold an extraordinary parliamentary session.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has given ministers a one-week grace period and will likely invite the cabinet to convene early next month to resolve the government deadlock.

Ministerial sources told An Nahar daily published on Monday that Salam will “definitely” call for a cabinet session on July 2 to resolve several weeks of government paralysis.

Speaker Nabih Berri has stressed that the legislative and executive powers will enjoy the needed quorum if they convene, saying the policy of either my way or nothing is not in Lebanon's favor.

Berri told officials who visited him in Ain el-Tineh on Sunday that there was no initiative yet to resolve Lebanon’s political crises “because some parties continue to hold onto their stances.”

Speaker Nabih Berri has reportedly urged the rival political parties “to come to their senses” and to work on the activation of the parliament and the government.

Berri's visitors quoted him as saying that he “hoped everyone would come to their senses and feel the dangers of the current situation.”

Lebanon has likely plunged in an open-ended cabinet crisis after consultations on the controversial issue of the appointment of high-ranking security and military officials failed to produce results.

Speaker Nabih Berri did not confirm to his visitors whether Prime Minister Tammam Salam would be able to call for a cabinet session this month or if the paralysis would last longer than the holy month of Ramadan which starts on Thursday.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam is not likely to call for a cabinet session this week to allow the rival parties to agree on ways to manage the state's affairs without clashing on the controversial issue of high-ranking officials.

An official close to Salam told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat published on Monday that Salam gave the parties two weeks to continue to hold contacts and avoid a cabinet paralysis.

Speaker Nabih Berri has warned that the country can no longer bear the consequences of paralysis, saying the verbal feud between the rival parties would not have an impact on their dialogue.

“The situation can no longer tolerate a government or parliamentary paralysis and contacts and efforts are being made to guarantee a cabinet session and an extraordinary legislative session to adopt urgent draft-laws,” Berri told several local dailies published on Monday.

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed grave dissatisfaction over the ongoing cabinet crisis, expressing fear over the fate of Syria after the attack against Druze in Syria's Qalb Lawzah

“Prime Minister Tammam Salam and I are on the same page,” Berri said in comments published in al-Mustaqbal newspaper Sunday, considering that they are tackling the matter "patiently."