The United States sought to use the indictment of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon to back Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri after his government was toppled by the Hizbullah-led alliance, As Safir daily reported Wednesday.

The newspaper said that the U.S. administration contacted tribunal officials immediately after the toppling of the cabinet to use the indictment as a political pressure aimed at bringing back Hariri to power and sidelining Hizbullah.

Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri telephoned Bahrain’s King Hamad reiterating to him his condemnation of all acts that harm the interests of the Lebanese either in Bahrain or in the rest of Arab and Gulf countries.

An Nahar newspaper said Wednesday that Hariri held the telephone conversation with King Hamad on Tuesday.

Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri has criticized Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah for claiming to be “the spiritual leader of revolutions in the Arab world.”

“Hizbullah’s leadership is seeking to make changes in the Arab world via the Iranian way and wants the Lebanese to agree on turning their country into an arena that exports revolutions,” Hariri told al-Mustaqbal and Beirut families that visited him at Center House on Monday night.

A March 14 source criticized Hizbullah leader Sayyed Nasrallah, telling An Nahar daily that the party chief spoke as if he was behind all freedoms in Lebanon. “He abolished the constitution and the state.”

In remarks published Sunday, the source mocked the Hizbullah chief, saying Nasrallah believes that “all Lebanese should thank him for allowing them to express their opinions.”

Hizbullah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday stressed that "all this uproar" in Lebanon over his party's arsenal of weapons "will not affect the performance of the Resistance which will carry on with training and arming" its fighters.

"We have to deal calmly with everything being said, as the Resistance's arsenal of weapons is fine and it will always be pointed at the (Israeli) enemy, but let no one try to harass us," Nasrallah added.

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed on Friday that any project outside the state has failed.

He said at a popular rally before tens of thousands of supporters at the end of his three-day visit to Tripoli: “Every sect in Lebanon that has pursued its own agenda has failed … all agendas established alongside the state have only brought about tragedy and destruction in Lebanon.”

A meeting between Premier-designate Najib Miqati and representatives of the March 8 alliance’s leaders did not make major progress on resolving the cabinet formation deadlock, media reports said Friday.

Miqati met on Thursday with the Free Patriotic Movement leader’s envoy, Caretaker Minister Jebran Bassil, and the assistants of the Hizbullah leader and the speaker, respectively Hussein Khalil and MP Ali Hassan Khalil.

A high-ranking Republican legislator has said that the U.S. Congress should cut off funding for the Lebanese army if Hizbullah plays “even a minor role” in Premier-designate Najib Miqati’s government.

Representative Steve Chabot of Ohio, chairman of the House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, told The Daily Star in an interview published Friday that Congress should not donate U.S. taxpayer money to Lebanon if the assistance winds up under Hizbullah’s control.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has urged all Lebanese political parties to use a calmer political rhetoric to prevent any clashes between foes.

He addressed caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri in remarks to As Safir daily on Friday, asking him if he sees any solution to the issue of Hizbullah’s arms except for “calm and rational dialogue.”

Caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Thursday called on the Hizbullah-led camp to start implementing "the provisions of the Taef Accord, especially the clause stipulating that only the Lebanese State can possess weapons."

After a lunch banquet he threw at the Quality Inn Hotel in honor of the journalists of Tripoli and the North, Hariri noted that the rival camp "must bear the responsibility" should it decide to halt Lebanon's financing of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.