Speaker Nabih Berri described on Wednesday the army’s deployment in the northern city of Tripoli as relieving, noting that all the facilitations were provided to prevent sedition.

“We are required to help the army in maintaining security and preventing sedition,” Berri told An Nahar newspaper.

General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim on Tuesday confirmed media reports that the arrest of Salafist activist Shadi al-Mawlawi was coordinated with a Western security agency, noting that al-Qaida exists in Lebanon and hinting that Mawlawi is a Qaida member.

Speaking to the correspondents of Arab newspapers in Lebanon, Ibrahim said: “As to Mawlawi’s case, I believe that the issue is thorny and weighty, and we have been following up on the case since 13 days without informing anyone in Lebanon because confidentiality is an essential part of our job. This case has major repercussions and local and international aspects.”

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday called for “removing illegal arms” from Tripoli, which has witnessed three days of deadly clashes, holding the government responsible for “any negligence or procrastination in implementing the necessary measures to protect the city.”

“The residents of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen belong to one city and they reject fighting and infiltrators,” the bloc said in a statement recited by ex-PM Fouad Saniora, following an emergency meeting in Tripoli’s Quality Inn Hotel.

A fierce armed clash erupted on Tuesday between the families of al-Nashar, Hrash and al-Naanai in al-Rifaiyeh in central Tripoli, leaving three people wounded and raising tensions in the city which is still reeling from three days of deadly sectarian clashes.

“The army has managed to contain the clashes in al-Rifaiyeh, which had nothing to do with the Bab al-Tabbaneh-Jabal Mohsen clashes,” Radio Voice of Lebanon (93.3) reported.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Tuesday announced that calm has been restored in the northern city of Tripoli following a ceasefire, noting that the army took the necessary precautions to preserve the truce and that it had deployed in four hotspots.

"Hostilities have ceased in Tripoli," Miqati told reporters in a press briefing held in Beirut, adding that "the past 48 hours have been difficult."

President Michel Suleiman stressed that Lebanon’s stability cannot be harmed as long as the Taif Accord still stands, noting that the clashes in the northern city of Tripoli have been caused by the mounting security tensions, reported al-Liwaa newspaper on Tuesday.

He told the newspaper: “The clashes in Tripoli have nothing to do with the Syrian crisis.”

Security agencies succeeded in the past few days in uncovering a terrorist network with local, Arab, and European links, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Tuesday.

It said that the confessions of one of the detainees led to the arrest of Sunni Islamist Shadi al-Mawlawi, a development which sparked armed clashes in the northern city of Tripoli over the weekend.

The army began to deploy on Tuesday in Syria Street, which separates the rival neighborhoods of Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh and Alawite Jabal Mohsen in Tripoli, after guarantees that it won’t come under fire.

According to the National News Agency, the army combed the streets to remove any unexploded ordnance.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel revealed on Tuesday that a disciplinary probe was launched to reveal the facts that pushed the General Security Department to detain Shadi al-Mawlawi at the entrance of an office that belongs to Finance Minister Mohammed al-Safadi.

On Saturday, the General Security Department lured al-Mawlawi to an office at Safadi’s welfare association in Tripoli under a healthcare pretext.

Former prime minister Saad Hariri on Tuesday commended Tripoli residents for their “awareness” that “foiled all attempts to drag the city into a new series of chaos and discord.”

“It also showed the adherence of the people of Tripoli to the project of the state and its institutions by refusing all attempts to lure them against the state, because they believe that such attempts harm the city and the unity of the whole nation,” Hariri said in a statement.