BEIRUT: Cabinet is still attempting to forge a united stance on the issues that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon may raise during his upcoming visit to Lebanon, governmental sources told The Daily Star Tuesday. Ban is scheduled to arrive in the country Friday, and is set to meet with President Michel Sleiman, Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Speaker Nabih Berri, and members of the opposition. It is not known whether U.N. Special Envoy Terje Roed-Larsen will be among the delegation accompanying Ban, especially in light of recent comments by the head of Hezbollah’s Shura Council, Mohammad Yazbeck, calling Larsen “phony.”

Yazbeck accused Larsen, who is tasked with overseeing the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, of being biased toward Israel. UNSCR 1559, adopted in 2004, calls for Syrian troops to withdraw from Lebanon and for the disarmament of Hezbollah. Yazbeck also said the U.N. chief was not welcome in Lebanon sparking an uproar from the March 14 alliance.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah is expected to deliver a speech Saturday, the day after Ban’s arrival. Speculation is rife about the topics Nasrallah will tackle, and whether he will address the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the U.N.-backed international tribunal set up to investigate and try those responsible for the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and the others killed with him, or other controversial topics. Hezbollah play an integral role in the current Cabinet.

Grand Serail sources told The Daily Star that Ban will meet Mikati twice during his visit. On Friday the two leaders will hold discussions, and on Saturday Mikati will hold a dinner banquet in Ban’s honor.

Government sources expect Ban to bring up U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which brokered a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon following the 2006 summer war. The sources expect Ban to call for UNSCR 1701’s full implementation, and ask about the decrease in the number of Lebanese Army personnel deployed in the south.

These sources added that if Larsen does accompany Ban, there is a strong possibility that the U.N. delegation will address the issue of non-state arms.

Ban is also likely to bring up the STL, the sources said. He will ask the government about efforts to cooperate with the tribunal’s prosecutor general and to arrest the four accused men, all of whom are members of Hezbollah.

The U.N. delegation will also raise the Syrian situation and its repercussions on Lebanon, as well as Lebanese Minister Fayez Ghosn’s recent statements that Al-Qaeda operates in Lebanon, according to the sources. The sources also expect Ban to ask that the porous Lebanese-Syrian borders be kept under control, and will offer the help of the U.N. in this regard. Lebanon has its own issues to raise. Officials will bring up the subject of maritime border demarcation and oil exploration off the Lebanese coast, both subjects that Nabih Berri Monday said would be the first topics he spoke about with Ban.

As for the issue of non-state weapons, Lebanon will tell Ban that this issue will be discussed during national dialogue talks that Sleiman is attempting to revive.

Lebanon is expected to tell Ban that the government is still studying the STL issue, and will inform the U.N. of the its position about renewing the court’s mandate and extending the protocol between the government and the U.N. at a later date, the sources said.

It will also say Lebanon is cooperating with the STL and will tell the U.N. if it needs help resolving the issue of Syrian refugees in the country.

Other politicians have weighed in on Ban’s visit. Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea Tuesday criticized “some discordant voices that have made statements that are not compatible with the presence of a state in Lebanon, since official authorities are the ones who welcome or do not welcome [visitors] in Lebanon.”

Future Bloc MPs said the “visit confirms the importance that the Lebanese government behave in a way that befits a state that respects its people, its Constitution, the relations that link it to the United Nations ... and the Security Council’s decision to establish the STL.”