Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi said on Sunday that the Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun will never be a president, criticizing the street mobilizations that the latter kicked off during the latest cabinet session.

“Aoun will never be a president. What he did in the streets only indicate a state of national downfall and is a proof that he is not fit to handle responsibility at the level of the state,” said Rifi in an interview to the Kuwaiti al-Anbaa daily.

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi held Hizbullah responsible for the al-Saadiyat incident, stressing commitment to the state's authority and urging all related officials to unite efforts and put an end to the party's behavior, the National News Agency said on Saturday.

“Lately we have seen the criminal act in al-Saadiyat where Hizbullah, under the cover of the so-called Resistance Brigades, violated the town and terrorized its people through a show of force repeating the scene of May 7,” said Rifi during an Iftar in the town of Tripoli.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam is allegedly procrastinating on calling for a cabinet session to avoid a confrontation between the Hizbullah ministers and Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi against the backdrop of the video of the Roumieh prison torture.

Salam has expressed fears that the dispute between them would grow after Rifi, who represents al-Mustaqbal Movement in the cabinet, accused Hizbullah of leaking the video clips showing several prison guards beating Islamist inmates, al-Joumhouria newspaper said Friday.

Hizbullah's Loyalty to Resistance bloc strongly condemned on Thursday the reported torture at the Roumieh prison as well as what it described as the “cheap opportunistic stances” that accompanied the scandal.

The bloc “strongly condemns the violations of some members of the official security agencies and their use of torture tactics with prisoners, regardless of the charges,” it said in a statement issued after its periodic meeting.

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.”

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday voiced support for “the measures taken by Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq and Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi” to address the situations in Lebanese prisons in the wake of the abuse videos that were leaked from Roumieh.

The bloc “joins its voice to their voices and to the voice of the vast majority of Lebanese in their demand for pressing on with the investigation in a transparent and strict manner,” it said in a statement issued after its weekly meeting.

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi accused Hizbullah of seeking to create differences between him and Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq following a scandal at the country's largest and most infamous prison.

The party later rejected the claims.

The ministers of justice and interior pledged accountability Sunday after videos of Internal Security Forces guards abusing and torturing Roumieh prison inmates went viral on social networking websites.

In a press conference he held after a meeting with a Muslim Scholars Committee delegation, Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi described the conduct as a “crime at the national and humanitarian levels.”

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi stated on Saturday that the on-going cabinet obstruction by Hizbullah and Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun jeopardize Lebanon's fate.

“The prolonged disruption carried out by Hizbullah and its allies reflect on the work regularity of the state institutions, and imperil the fate of Lebanon,” stressed Rifi in a press interview.

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi has lashed out at Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun, accusing him of seeking to suspend cabinet sessions and “the interests of the Lebanese.”

“We will ask Prime Minister Tammam Salam to convene the cabinet, seeing as (the representation of all sects) is guaranteed and the country's circumstances cannot withstand a suspension of cabinet sessions,” said Rifi in an interview with al-Liwaa newspaper to be published Monday.