Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed that the cabinet is asked to meet the interests of the Lebanese citizens and priorities instead of engaging in useless debates.

“The citizens must have their priorities met, especially (in) the electricity” sector, Jumblat told An Nahar newspaper on Wednesday.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc is gearing up to propose an urgent draft law that would call for a comprehensive settlement to the billions of dollars of extra-budgetary spending made since 2006, al-Liwaa daily reported Wednesday.

It said the opposition bloc that is part of the March 14 coalition will propose the draft law in an effort to ward off attempts by the March 8 parliamentary majority of clinching a vote on a $5.9 billion bill on spending made by Premier Najib Miqati’s cabinet in 2011.

The Progressive Socialist Party stressed on Tuesday that the party’s criticism of the Syrian regime is not linked to the internal Lebanese situation.

It said in a statement: “PSP leader MP Walid Jumblat emphasized during his recent meeting with Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir the need to prevent the unrest in Syria from spreading to Lebanon.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat has slammed the referendum held in Syria on a new constitution for the revolt-hit country, noting that a Yemen-style solution was the best to resolve the crisis.

“Wretched are those days when constitutional theatricals are being held over the remains of bodies and amid the roar of cannons and the sound of bullets,” Jumblat said in a weekly column in his party’s al-Anbaa newspaper to be published Tuesday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat described Syrian President Bashar Assad as a “megalomaniac,” calling for the arming of the Syrian opposition.

Jumblat told the French newspaper Le Monde that his last meeting with Assad was “surreal.”

The al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc stressed on Friday that Change and Reform bloc leader MP Michel Aoun lost on three fronts when the March 14 lawmakers withdrew from a parliamentary session the day before.

Al-Mustaqbal sources told An Nahar that Aoun lost Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas, failed to win support for a $5.9 billion cabinet spending bill, and witnessed the removal of the Value Added Tax on red and green diesel, a move rejected by Energy Minister Jebran Bassil.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat described the Russian veto on a U.N. Security Council resolution on the crisis in Syria as “doomed.”

“It formed an alibi for the West to stand idly by… We all know that they can interfere at least to impose a ceasefire and save Homs and the Syrian people,” Jumblat told An Nahar newspaper on Thursday.

The official resignation of Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas on Wednesday was accompanied by signs of a political settlement reached between the top leaders that would witness a March 14 support for a draft law on the transportation allowance in return for a drop of March 8 majority demands to see records of billions of dollars spent by the governments of former Premiers Fouad Saniora and Saad Hariri.

President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati accepted the resignation of Nahhas who had been refusing to sign a transportation allowance decree linked with a wage hike made by the cabinet.

Change and Reform bloc MP Ibrahim Kanaan confirmed reports that the parliamentary majority forces were seeking to garner majority support for a draft-law proposed by him to authorize the cabinet to set the transportation allowance.

The draft-law “is a solution and guarantees the (continued) work of the cabinet, Kanaan told An Nahar daily published Wednesday despite reports that Speaker Nabih Berri could withdraw the draft-law and another one drafted by opposition al-Mustaqbal MP Nabil de Freij from the agenda of the session if the resignation of Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas was not sent to Premier Najib Miqati ahead of the session.

Speaker Nabih Berri adjourned to Thursday a parliamentary session set to discuss several draft laws, a day after Labor Minister Charbel Nahhas submitted his resignation to Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun for refusing to sign the controversial transportation allowance decree.

While parliament discussed several issues during its Wednesday session, it did not tackle the two main draft laws that would determine the fate of the transportation allowance.