Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi on Tuesday said the cabinet will discuss Wednesday a new extra-budgetary spending bill, noting that “the 4,900 billion was slashed to 3,500 billion, including the public sector wages.”

Speaking during Tuesday’s cabinet session, Safadi added that a political decision has been taken to approve the budget, but noted that the obstacle still hindering the plan was the need to audit extra-budgetary spending made between 2006 and 2010 by the governments of Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri.

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc praised on Tuesday President Michel Suleiman’s call for the resumption of the national dialogue, noting that it is a proper way to tackle pending disputes.

It noted however after its weekly meeting: “Limiting the possession of arms to the state and forming an unbiased government are the basis for resuming the dialogue.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stated on Tuesday that Electricite du Liban contract employees will not reach their goals through their latest actions.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “Some MPs, who we will not name, have been inciting the employees to action.”

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour on Monday reassured that no Lebanese expats were hurt in the deadly blaze that erupted at the Villagio mall in the Qatari capital Doha.

The minister said that Lebanese Ambassador to Qatar Hassan Saad informed him of the good news.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat demanded on Monday that the Lebanese pilgrims who were kidnapped in Syria on Tuesday be returned to Lebanon, urging all sides to “exercise restraint.”

He warned in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine “against falling for the Syrian regime’s traps” should any of the supporters of the victims seek revenge against the abduction.

The 11 Lebanese pilgrims abducted in Aleppo are in a good condition and will be released by tomorrow night, spokesman of the Syrian al-Ahrar party Naser Doqmaq revealed on Saturday.

“The abducted Lebanese are in a good condition but the latest developments in Syria postponed their release,” Doqmaq said in statement.

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday said the proliferation of illegal arms in the country “requires incorporating all weapons within the equation of the army, people, and Resistance,” urging all parties to heed President Michel Suleiman’s call for national dialogue “without preconditions.”

“We will take part in national dialogue without preconditions. If the March 14 camp is truly concerned about the country, then it should head to dialogue without conditions,” Nasrallah said, in a televised address on the occasion of Resistance and Liberation Day.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea stated on Friday that he “understands” President Michel Suleiman’s call for dialogue “because I am aware of the amount of dangers surrounding Lebanon.”

He said before reporters in Maarab: “The dispute over the government must be resolved before dialogue can he held.”

President Michel Suleiman on Thursday announced that he will call for a national dialogue conference to be held in the second week of June, urging the March 14 forces to heed his call without linking it to the issue of forming a new government.

“Of course I will call for dialogue and I have already voiced several calls and informed the leaders of the topics: the defense strategy concerning when and how the Resistance's arms must be used; the implementation of the previous resolutions as to removing Palestinian arms outside camps and organizing them inside camps; and the removal of weapons from Lebanese cities and towns,” said Suleiman in an interview on LBC.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly expressed on Wednesday the United States’ appreciation for the efforts of the Internal Security Forces and Lebanese army to work together to maintain calm in Lebanon.

She emphasized after holding talks with ISF chief General Ashraf Rifi her country’s “concern for the current security situation in Lebanon and called on all parties to exercise restraint and respect for Lebanon’s security and stability.”