Lawmakers representing Beirut criticized on Monday the security situation in Lebanon, saying that “no reasonable individual” would accept the armed clashes that have erupted in the city over the past few months.

They said after a meeting at parliament: “The government is responsible for the unrest.”

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman has said Washington has evidence that Tehran and its Lebanese ally Hizbullah are bolstering Syria’s Assad regime.

Speaking in Amman, Feltman told reporters that Syrian President Bashar Assad is pegging his ruling Alawite minority against other sects and implementing his "own prophesy, which is moving Syria into more chaos and a civil war."

Lebanon was plunged into darkness Friday after employees shut down the Zahrani power plant in southern Lebanon after receiving threats from the local municipalities and street thugs, revealed Electricite du Liban in a statement on Friday.

It explained that the threats stemmed from the transportation of a MVA 40 transformer from the plant to Sidon’s main power plant.

Russia will send a flotilla of warships led by its only aircraft carrier to its naval base in Syria for a port call next year amid tensions with the West over the Syrian crisis, a report said Monday.

The ships, headed by the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, will dock at the little-utilized Russian base in the Syrian port of Tartous in spring 2012, the Izvestia daily said, quoting the Russian navy.

Information Minister Walid al-Daouq announced after a cabinet session on Wednesday that the government would seek "clarifications" from the U.S. ambassador to Beirut after Hizbullah said it had succeeded in exposing CIA operatives.

Earlier on Wednesday, Agriculture Minister Hussein Hajj Hassan, who represents Hizbullah in the 30-seat government, told reporters during a break from the cabinet meeting that the government had "decided to summon U.S. Ambassador Maura Connelly to question her on this issue."

An American official stressed that espionage will always be fraught with dangers, reported As Safir newspaper on Tuesday.

He told the newspaper that collecting information about enemies who are always trying to uncover spies within their ranks will always be a risky matter.

Jassem Merhi al-Jassem, one of four brothers kidnapped in Lebanon a few months ago, has been killed in Syrian captivity, reported the daily An Nahar on Monday.

Nabil Halabi, head of the Lebanese Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, revealed that Jassem was kidnapped in Beirut and transported with his three brothers to Syria through a vehicle from the Syrian Embassy.

A senior U.S. official was in Beirut on Wednesday to inquire about the role of the Lebanese banking sector in the alleged transfer of Syrian money to Lebanon to escape sanctions imposed on Damascus by the United States and the European Union.

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes in the Department of Treasury Daniel Glaser will hold talks with top officials to stress the need for Lebanese authorities to remain vigilant against attempts by the Syrian regime to evade the U.S. and EU sanctions (by resorting) to the Lebanese financial sector,” As Safir daily quoted U.S. sources as saying.

The acting spokesman of Special Tribunal for Lebanon Prosecutor Daniel Bellemare confirmed to Naharnet that the judge is currently away from the STL seat but stressed that he is following up the work of his office.

“As a matter of policy we do not discuss details of the health of staff,” Gregory Townsend, the senior legal officer and acting spokesperson of Bellemare’s office, told Naharnet.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi criticized on Monday those who are seeking to “impoverish” Christians in the East, saying that the martyrs in Iraq are pledging for the help of the officials to safeguard stability and peace.

“Those who were martyred were a sacrifice for our beloved Iraq to implement peace, justice and stability,” al-Rahi said in a mass on the first anniversary of the attack on Our Lady of Salvation church in Baghdad.