The General Security Department detained a Jordanian called Abdulmalek Mohammed Youssef Othman Abdulsalam, who is linked to al-Qaida, the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported on Monday.

Abdulsalam was extradited by the Iranian authorities to Syria in the past few months, and then he entered Lebanon and was arrested when he was on his way to the Rafik Hariri International Airport.

Sectarian violence linked to the unrest in Syria claimed another six lives in the northern port city of Tripoli on Monday as clashes spread beyond the rival districts of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen and Islamist protesters reclosed the roads around al-Nour Square after their Salafist comrade Shadi al-Mawlawi remained in custody.

OTV said four B-10 RPGs fell on al-Zahriyeh district in central Tripoli and that residents were massively fleeing from the neighborhood.

An official at the Iranian Energy Ministry revealed that his country will start providing Lebanon and Syria with electricity “soon,” Iran's state news agency IRNA reported.

“Supplying Lebanon with power was among the issues that Lebanon and Iran agreed on in the previous few months,” Abdolhamid Frazam Behboodi said.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s sources denied on Monday a report that Syria had pressured the PM to give up a decision by Lebanese authorities to steer the country clear of the uprising against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

In remarks to several radio stations, sources close to Miqati said: “The policy of distancing ourselves (from the uprising in Syria) is still on.”

Speaker Nabih Berri said on Monday that he isn’t willing to call on the cabinet to resign despite its low productivity as there is no other substitute for it.

“We have agreed on the formation of this cabinet because we had no other substitute or a better choice,” Berri told As Safir newspaper.

The General Security Department was mum on Monday on its controversial arrest of an Islamist for allegedly contacting a terrorist organization, a move that left three people dead in gunbattles in the northern port city of Tripoli.

“We haven’t yet announced our version of the story. We are waiting for the appropriate time to tell the real story behind (Shadi) al-Mawlawi’s arrest,” a General Security official told An Nahar daily.

The Higher Defense Council on Sunday discussed the security situation in unrest-hit Tripoli, lauding the role of security agencies in “preserving security, busting terrorist networks, freeing abductees and curbing the trafficking of arms across the Lebanese areas.”

Speaking after an emergency meeting at the Baabda Palace, the council’s spokesman, Maj. Gen. Adnan Merheb, stressed the conferees’ keenness on preserving civil peace in the country, noting that “to this end, the council has given the necessary instructions to the military and security institutions and specified the missions of the ministries, administrations and relevant authorities.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Sunday stressed “the need to reach a political solution to the problem” in unrest-hit Tripoli that would “spare the army a confrontation on Tripoli and keep it away from political disputes,” warning of “traps set up by the Syrian regime.”

According to a statement issued by the PSP, Jumblat contacted several security and political officials, urging “the release of Mr. Shadi al-Mawlawi and the addressing of the situation according to the legal norms, to prevent the recurrence of illegal arrests by sides that lack jurisdiction.”

The March 14 forces on Sunday called on the government to take care of the residents of Arsal and the Bekaa and the Syrian refugees in the area, urging an “immediate intervention to put an end to the violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty by the Syrian regime’s army.”

“From here we say to whomever it concerns that we demand the government to immediately take care of the residents of Arsal and the Bekaa and to heed the situation of the families that had fled from Syria by providing their needs through the Higher Relief Commission,” March 14 General-Secretariat Coordinator Fares Soaid said in Arsal, during a visit at the head of an opposition delegation.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Sunday that a decision was taken not to provide political cover for any security violator in the northern city of Tripoli, the scene of deadly clashes since Saturday.

Miqati said the decision was taken following consultations with all the political, religious, security and social figures in Tripoli.