Life on Monday began to return to normal in the northern city of Tripoli, which witnessed a week of deadly clashes between gunmen from rival neighborhoods, after the Lebanese Army deployed in the tense areas for the first time.

The Army, which was given on Sunday the political green light to implement a security plan, began to restore law and order in the city by deploying in the neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen and entering Bab al-Tabbaneh for the first time on Monday morning.

Al-Mustaqbal MP Oqab Saqr stressed that the abductors of nine Lebanese pilgrims in Syria are offering a deal to free the men in exchange for the release of Syrian political prisoners as media reports said on Monday that Hizbullah allegedly has set up a jail in the Bekaa for Syrians infiltrating the country.

Saqr said during an interview with al-Jadeed channel on Sunday night that the kidnappers of the Lebanese men, who were abducted on May 22 in Syria, demand the release of all Syrian political prisoners in Damascus and in Lebanon to free the pilgrims.

Israel's ambassador to the U.S. has warned that any possible transfer from the Syrian regime of chemical weapons to Hizbullah would be a "game-changer," and said that would be a "red line" for the Jewish state.

"Were those weapons to pass into the wrong hands -- Hizbullah's hands for example -- that would be a game-changer for us," Ambassador Michael Oren told Fox News Sunday.

The cabinet convened at the Baabda Palace failed on Monday to refer the new wage scale to the parliament despite warnings by the Syndicate Coordination Committee to stage yet another strike to protest the government procrastination.

“The cabinet decided to implement economy reforms in parallel with referring the draft law to the parliament,” Labor Minister Salim Jreissati told reporters in a briefing following the session.

The top three parties of the March 8 majority alliance have “totally rejected” holding the parliamentary polls next year based on the winner-takes-all system of the 1960 electoral law, As Safir daily reported on Monday.

The newspaper quoted sources as saying that a meeting was held between the Hizbullah leader's aide, Hussein Khalil, the assistant of Speaker Nabih Berri, Ali Hassan Khalil, Minister Jebran Bassil, who is a member of the Free Patriotic Movement, and Amal movement's security official Ahmed al-Baalbaki.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Sunday telephoned Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji and Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi, urging military and security forces to “shoulder their responsibilities in order to stop the security deterioration and impose state authority” in the violence-hit city of Tripoli.

Hariri called for “putting an end, once and for all, to the cycle of violence that some parties want to drag the capital of the North into,” according to a statement issued by the ex-PM's press office.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Sunday called on the Lebanese parties to distance themselves from the Syrian conflict, amid deadly Syria-linked clashes in the northern city of Tripoli.

“We must distance ourselves from the conflict in Syria and we don't wish to see it ruled by takfirist groups,” said Aoun during a meeting with a group of dentists who won the elections of the Lebanese Dental Association earlier in the day.

Elie Azar al-Maalouf, the candidate backed by the March 8 forces, was elected on Sunday as the new head of the Lebanese Dental Association, state-run National News Agency reported.

Maalouf ran against the March 14-backed candidate George Tahini.

The Higher Defense Council convened at the Baabda Palace on Sunday in order to discuss the latest round of clashes in the northern city of Tripoli.

Council spokesman Major General Adnan Merheb announced after the meeting: “The conferees addressed the security situation in Tripoli and the measures taken by the army in the city.”

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi called on officials from the northern city of Tripoli to exercise efforts to end the clashes in the city.

He urged during his Sunday sermon “the residents of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen to halt the cycle of violence and reach reconciliation.”