There was “total calm” in the northern city of Tripoli on Wednesday after several days of deadly gunbattles, the state-run National News Agency reported, as the Lebanese army arrested four gunmen in its latest sweep on the fighters.

Schools, universities and shops reopened in the city's safer areas except for the hotspots, NNA said.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat said on Wednesday that politicians are incapable of resolving any of the local crises, calling for reconciliation among the residents of Tripoli to end the sectarian clashes.

“President Michel Suleiman, Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Najib Miqati and I are working on the same level but we are incapable of ending the standstill,” Jumblat said in an interview with al-Akhbar newspaper.

Hizbullah official Sheikh Nabil Qaouq on Tuesday demanded the March 14 alliance to “stop covering up” for those involved in the attacks against the northern city of Tripoli's residents.

"It is time for March 14 to stop justifying and covering up for those involved in the attacks against innocents in Tripoli,” Qaouq said during a Hizbullah event in the Beirut neighborhood of Shiyyah.

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc condemned on Tuesday the eruption of clashes between the rival neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen in the northern city of Tripoli, saying that the army should assume its duties in containing the unrest.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “The army should assume its new duties in a firm and just manner.”

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Tuesday said that he will not provide political cover to any security violator in the clashes-hit city of Tripoli, stressing that “no one can accept to forgive those who blew up the two mosques."

“We have decided that there is only one solution, which is to impose security in Tripoli. When we have 14 deaths caused by sniper fire, we must ask, where did these gunshots come from?" said Miqati at a press conference.

Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji on Tuesday stressed that the army has decided to confront security violators, “whichever side they may belong to,” in his first comments on the deadly clashes in Tripoli.

“As part of the coordination between the army and the security and judicial authorities over the current developments, Qahwaji held a meeting at noon with acting State Prosecutor Judge Samir Hammoud, State Security chief Maj. Gen. George Qaraa, General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, acting Internal Security Forces chief Brig. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous, army intelligence chief Brig. Gen. Edmund Fadel and ISF Intelligence Bureau chief Col. Imad Othman,” the National News Agency said.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri condemned on Tuesday the latest round of clashes between the rival Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen neighborhoods in the northern city of Tripoli, saying that the city will not be used as a pawn in regional disputes.

He said in a statement: “Tripoli will not, under any circumstances, become another den of the Syrian regime and its allies in Lebanon.”

Ten people have been charged on Tuesday with forming armed groups in the northern city of Tripoli, reported the National News Agency.

It said that State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged eight detainees, including Hatem al-Janzarli, and two commanders of the Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhoods in Tripoli.

The Lebanese army on Tuesday carried out raids in Tripoli, a day after the country's top leaders authorized the military to take charge of security in Lebanon's second-largest city for six months.

Monday's decision was taken at a meeting between President Michel Suleiman, army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati.

Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel has appealed for a reconciliation conference in the northern city of Tripoli to resolve the ongoing violence that has threatened to spiral out of control.

Al-Joumhouria quoted Charbel as saying on Tuesday that such a conference should bring together Tripoli's politicians, including lawmakers and ministers, and party leaders.