Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday reiterated that the formation of a so-called “de facto cabinet” would violate the 1943 National Pact, an unwritten agreement that laid the foundation of Lebanon as a multi-confessional state.

“What's dangerous in the cabinet formation process is that it is based on incomplete consultations that excluded the biggest Christian parliamentary bloc,” Aoun said in a written statement he recited after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc.

King Abdullah Monday decreed jail terms of up to 20 years for belonging to "terrorist groups" and fighting abroad, as it struggles to deter Islamist Saudis from becoming jihadists.

"Taking part in combat outside the kingdom, in any form" will be punished by jail terms of between three and 20 years, said the decree published by state news agency SPA.

The United Nations deplored the deadly blast that hit the Bekaa town of Hermel on Saturday evening, stressing that embracing the military institution is “the only way to face these random terrorist actions.”

"We strongly condemn the car bombing in Hermel which killed and wounded a number of people,” U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly said in a released statement.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Friday stressed that Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam will not be able to form “a de facto cabinet,” blaming him for the delay in the cabinet formation process.

“The consultations over cabinet formation have not led to anything and no progress has been made,” Aoun said during an interview with the pan-Arab, Beirut-based al-Mayadeen television.

Damascus justified on Friday Hizbullah's involvement in the Syrian war, saying the party is “preemptively” defending Lebanon.

“Hizbullah's men are resilient fighters that are defending their country,” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said at a press conference in Switzerland's Geneva.

The U.N. aims to bring Syria's warring sides back to the negotiating table from February 10, mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said Friday, despite a regime vow not to give any ground.

"I suggested we resume, on the basis of an agreed agenda, on February 10," Brahimi told reporters after a week of closed-door negotiations wrapped up.

Syria's warring sides on Thursday got bogged down in a dispute over who was responsible for the violence in the country, as peace talks in Geneva focused on "terrorism".

While the mere fact the rivals agreed on a topic of discussion was seen as a step forward, the first round of talks are expected to wrap up Friday with no concrete progress on ending the violence, agreeing on a political transition or ensuring humanitarian aid to millions in need.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday warned that any cabinet line-up that does not respect the constitution and coexistence among the Lebanese would be considered “illegitimate.”

“Any cabinet formed in contravention of the constitutional, legal and coexistence norms – regardless of the intentions that pushed for its formation – will be illegitimate, and the bloc's stance will be decided accordingly,” Aoun said after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc in Rabieh.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon resumed on Monday its hearing sessions in The Hague, as Khaled Toubaili, a firefighter that was involved in the rescuing operations on February 14, 2005, gave his testimony.

Toubaili, a firefighter at the Bashura sector in the Beirut Fire Department, recounted the events he experienced on the day of former premier Rafik Hariri's assassination.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Wednesday stressed that there is no “fundamental dispute” with the Mustaqbal Movement, noting that the LF would only join the new cabinet if the Baabda Declaration was adopted as the ministerial policy statement.

“I'm more and more convinced that the LF won't take part in the cabinet,” Geagea said in an interview on Future TV, before underlining that his party would join the new government “if the Baabda Declaration was adopted as the only political component of the ministerial Policy Statement.”