March 14 opposition MP Butros Harb denied on Tuesday that handing over security agencies a unique code used to identify an individual user on a GSM network known as IMSI would infringe on people’s liberties, a day after the government approved limited access to the so-called telecom data.

“It is unfortunate that there was a dispute” between the different members of the cabinet on the telecom data, Harb said during a press conference about differences during Monday’s government session on the telecom data.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat condemned on Monday the assassination attempt against opposition MP Butros Harb, stressing the need for all the details in the crime to be uncovered.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “The sides behind the crime or others have not learned that assassinations only increase the Lebanese people’s determination and attachment to their freedom and democracy.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblt received on Thursday a cable from French President Francois Hollande, who voiced his country’s keenness on Lebanon’s stability and security.

He said in a cable to the Druze leader: “We have long defended Lebanon’s independence and sovereignty and we will continue on defending the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.”

The controversial employment of Electricite du Liban’s contract workers, which paralyzed the cabinet and the parliament on Tuesday, is jeopardizing the alliance between Hizbullah and the Free Patriotic Movement as President Michel Suleiman is set to decide on the matter.

The ball is in the president’s court, who will have to either ink the parliament’s approval of the workers’ permanent employment or refer it back to the legislature, local newspapers said on Wednesday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat said Monday that the Syrians will “crush the ruling gang” and claim victory over President Bashar al-Assad’s regime sooner or later, urging Russia and Iran to support the people not the government.

In his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine, Jumblat said that “Egypt witnessed a historical moment when elected President Mohammed Morsi took power to initiate a new era.”

National Struggle Front bloc leader Walid Jumblat recommended the parliament on Monday to adopt the suggestions of the March 14 opposition on the controversial extra-budgetary spending of 2012.

In remarks to As Safir daily, Jumblat said his stance from the cabinet’s bill is “not negative.” But he has been informed about the remarks of the opposition al-Mustaqbal bloc “which I think should be taken into consideration to guarantee the legality of the bill.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun reiterated that the adoption of proportional representation in the parliamentary electoral law will help reflect Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat’s real political weight, reported An Nahar daily on Sunday.

He told the daily: “Jumblat is suffering from an inferiority complex. He fears the Christians, Shiites, and Sunnis because they outnumber him.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat criticized on Saturday the sit-in launched by Salafist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir in the southern city of Sidon, saying mistakes are not resolved by committing more blunders.

“We have agreed that the issue of arms cannot be resolved except at the dialogue table and in calm and positive atmospheres,” Jumblat said in remarks to An Nahar daily after al-Asir vowed to keep his sit-in open-ended pending a solution to non-state arms, including Hizbullah’s arsenal.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stressed on Tuesday the need for the security forces to intervene to contain the recent unrest in Lebanon.

He accused after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting “officials of being complicit in the unrest.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat said Monday that “the challenges facing the new Egyptian president are many,” adding that the victory of Mohammed Morsi as Egypt’s president is a “gradual progress towards strengthening the achievements of the revolution which led to the uprooting of dictatorship, and paving the way for democracy.”

In his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine, Jumblat said that the Egyptian president faces many challenges to develop the country and its people “including the installation of the emerging democratic system and expanding the base of political participation, as well as economic challenges in terms of fighting against poverty and illiteracy.”