Caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud has asked Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi to take “suitable measures” with regard to the travel of Intelligence Bureau chief Col. Wissam Hassan to Egypt.

Baroud told Rifi on Wednesday that such measures would clarify the extent to which various regulations were being respected.

Caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud has said that the judiciary was now in charge of handling the case of three Syrians reportedly abducted in Lebanon.

“The case is currently under the jurisdiction of the prosecutor general, and the probe is led by the military judiciary,” Baroud said in a statement released on Wednesday.

Officials who have met with U.N. diplomats told An Nahar daily in remarks published Saturday that the Security Council is not mulling any action against Lebanon under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter.

Two senior March 14 coalition officials also said there was no need to resort to Chapter 7 because the provisions of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon would eventually be implemented without the use of force.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams expressed hope on Friday that the government formation process “would not overshadow the issues that affect the daily lives of Lebanese people, especially in the field of security.”

“I expressed my belief as the U.N. Special Coordinator that any new government should try to meet the aspirations of all the Lebanese people,” Williams said following talks with caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare’s requests from the ministries of interior, public works, telecommunications, and energy have become the center of attention of the concerned sides, as it was revealed that he had also requested official copies of telecommunications data from the Alfa and MTC mobile phone providers, as well as the fingerprints of Lebanese individuals and information on electric meter owners.

Ministerial sources in the caretaker government told the daily An Nahar in remarks published on Friday that these requests are being studied under legal experts, adding that the Ministry of Justice contacted the prosecutor to determine the consequences of the ministries’ refusal to cooperate with him.

The Beirut office of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s Prosecutor has reportedly asked the interior ministry to provide it with the fingerprints of 4 million Lebanese.

As Safir daily said Thursday that after reviewing laws, the ministry provided Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare with only several hundred fingerprints.

Four caretaker ministers have turned down requests from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon prosecutor to provide information and documents, in breach of the cooperation protocol signed with the U.N., sources close to the STL told the English-language The Daily Star.

The requests made by Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare were sent last month from his office in Beirut to caretaker Premier Saad Hariri, who passed them on to Ministers Ghazi Aridi, Jebran Bassil, Ziad Baroud and Charbel Nahhas on February 24, the newspaper said Tuesday.

The process of the government formation has gone back to “square one” although the speeches of March 14 officials on ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination anniversary made it clear that the coalition won’t take part in Premier-designate Najib Miqati’s cabinet, informed political sources told An Nahar daily.

The newspaper ruled out the possibility of having a cabinet line-up ready by the end of February, saying Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun’s demands are crippling the government formation process despite efforts by some teams from the March 8 forces to facilitate Miqati’s task.

Security forces succeeded on Thursday in arresting Abbas Abu Munthir Tleis, Lebanon’s most wanted individual in a raid in the Brital region in the Bekaa.

Internal Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi stated that the raid took place at Caretaker Interior Minister Ziad Baroud’s orders.

Marada movement leader Suleiman Franjieh has stressed he would participate in the cabinet only if he gets two portfolios and said the country needs “tough men” and not technocrats.

“If they don’t give me (2 portfolios) I will say thank you and won’t participate,” in the government, Franjieh told Marcel Ghanem’s Kalam al-Nass talk show on LBC TV network.