Prime Minister Tammam Salam reiterated on Wednesday that he was giving consultations on the cabinet crisis more time before calling for a session.

He said he is “still looking for a solution.” That's why he “procrastinated on inviting the government for a session this week.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun denied on Tuesday that he is seeking to paralyze state institutions in an attempt to change the Taef Accord, saying his supporters' anti-government protests will continue.

“I totally reject this conclusion,” Aoun said. “Those paralyzing the institutions are the ones not respecting the Constitution and laws.”

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed his disappointment with the political leaderships' handling of Lebanon's crisis, saying that it “harms the country more than foreign factors,” reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Friday.

His visitors on Thursday told the daily that the speaker emphasized that “there can be no solutions without dialogue.”

Speaker Nabih Berri postponed on Wednesday the presidential elections to next month following a lack of quorum at parliament, a sign that politicians were far from filling the prolonged vacuum in the country's top Christian post.

Berri postponed the session to September 2 after only 34 MPs from the March 14 alliance and his Development and Liberation bloc attended.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif highlighted on Wednesday the importance of dialogue in overcoming crises, stressing that Tehran is prepared for “all forms of cooperation” with Lebanon to help it achieve growth.

He declared during the second day of his trip to Beirut: “We do not meddle in internal Lebanese affairs and neither should other countries.”

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif began a two-day visit to Lebanon on Tuesday by meeting Prime Minister Tammam Salam.

“We discussed cooperation between the two countries and bilateral ties,” said Zarif after the Grand Serail talks.

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim has revealed that an initiative to raise the retirement age of senior army officers for three years aimed at ending a growing political crisis has not stopped.

Ibrahim told As Safir daily published on Monday that his contacts with all the Lebanese factions are ongoing.

Speaker Nabih Berri has said that Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun lost the opportunity of bringing his son-in-law as army chief by rejecting the names proposed by Defense Minister Samir Moqbel.

Berri, whose remarks were published in local dailies on Monday, told his visitors that an opportunity, which will not come again, has been lost.

Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Tammam Salam and Deputy PM Defense Minister Samir Moqbel attend Thursday the inauguration of a major extension of the Suez Canal in Egypt.

The three officials are expected to return to Beirut the same day.

Speaker Nabih Berri reiterated that he backed the appointment of top security and military officials but would not reject the extension of their terms if the government failed to reach an agreement on the controversial issue.

“I am with the appointments … but if there were no consensus, then I would back the continued functioning of the institutions, meaning extension,” Berri, whose remarks were published in al-Joumhouria daily on Wednesday, told his visitors in Ain el-Tineh.