Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat noted on Monday that the swift investigation into the death of Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahed demonstrates the need to support the army.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “The army should be supported in order to avert sliding into strife.”

France on Monday condemned the latest deadly violence in Syria and Lebanon, warning that “the persistence of repression (in Syria) jeopardizes regional security.”

“We express our regret over the killing of two clergymen in northern Lebanon,” Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahed and his companion Sheikh Mohammed al-Merheb, said Bernard Valero, the French foreign ministry’s spokesman.

Phalange Party chief Amin Gemayel demanded on Monday that an investigation into the death of Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahed and his aide Sheikh Mohammed Merheb be launched as soon as possible “for the sake of maintaining Lebanon’s higher interest.”

He said: “Officials should set Lebanon as a priority in order to avoid instability.”

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly voiced on Monday concern over the violence that has occurred in Lebanon recently, including in Tripoli last week and over the weekend that in Akkar which led to the deaths of Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahed and Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Merheb and those subsequently here in Beirut.

He said in a statement: “It is important that there be no further repetition of such violence and that the incidents that have occurred be fully and thoroughly investigated.”

The Higher Islamic Council deemed on Monday the murder of Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahed and his companion Sheikh Mohammed Merheb on Sunday as an assassination.

It said in a statement after a meeting at Dar al-Fatwa: “We demand that the case be referred to the judicial council.”

Kuwait advised its citizens on Monday to avoid travel to Lebanon and its nationals currently present in the country to leave due to the unstable security situation.

“The Kuwaiti authorities call on its citizens not to travel to Lebanon amid the tense security developments in the country,” the official KUNA news agency said.

Ulemas of the northern province of Akkar called on Monday for referring the killing of Sunni Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahed to the Judicial Council but rejected attempts to politicize the issue.

A statement read by Sheikh Khaldoun Oraymet described Abdul Wahed’s death as an “assassination by members of the Lebanese army which is respected by all the Lebanese.”

A joint national and security forces committee has seized Israeli made candies in the southern Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Monday.

The candies had wrappers with Hebrew inscriptions on them and another layer of Arab writings about the name of the alleged Syrian factory that made them. They were stashed in hundreds of bags, it said.

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji urged officials on Monday to end sedition in the country, saying the Lebanese are holding onto their government and army.

“The problem is with the political rhetoric which is the reason behind the sedition and the tension” among the Lebanese, Qahwaji told al-Joumhouria newspaper.

State commissioner to the military court Judge Saqr Saqr ordered the arrest of three Lebanese army officers and 19 soldiers who were manning the checkpoint in the Akkar town of al-Kweikhat where Sunni Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahed was killed, al-Liwaa daily reported Monday.

The arrests were made after midnight Sunday to investigate the incident which left Abdul Wahed and his aide Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Merheb dead while on their way to attend a rally organized by al-Mustaqbal MP Khaled Daher in Halba, al-Liwaa said.