Former prime minister Saad Hariri on Tuesday condemned the abduction of 16 Lebanese Shiite Muslim pilgrims in Syria’s Aleppo, expressing his “full solidarity with their families” and demanding their “immediate release.”

“We condemn the kidnapping of our Lebanese brothers in Syria, regardless of the party behind the kidnapping, and we call for their immediate release,” Hariri said in a statement released by his press office.

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah urged restraint on Tuesday after a group of Shiite Muslim Lebanese men were kidnapped by rebels in Syria while returning home from a pilgrimage in Iran.

"I call on everyone to show restraint," Nasrallah said in televised address after protesters blocked roads in Beirut’s southern suburbs to condemn the kidnap operation.

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc noted on Tuesday that the government has demonstrated in the past few months a “complete inability to maintain the security of the people.”

It demanded in a statement after its weekly meeting “Prime Minister Najib Miqati to immediately resign in order for stability to be restored in Lebanon.”

Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun slammed on Tuesday the sides that criticized the army’s role in the Kweikhat incident that led to the death of Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahed on Sunday, saying that they will regret their words.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc’s weekly meeting: “It’s unacceptable to arrest the soldiers after the incident.”

Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Monday snapped back at Beirut’s MPs over their call for him to resign, noting that he is trying to “douse the fire ignited by some Mustaqbal Movement MPs through their fiery, irresponsible stances.”

“The call for the government’s resignation has become present in all the statements and remarks of the Mustaqbal MPs, which reflects a deep desire to regain what they consider an undisputable right,” Miqati’s office said in a statement.

Slain clerics Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahed and his companion Sheikh Mohammed al-Merheb were laid to rest on Monday in the Akkar town of al-Bireh, amid tensions and intense shooting into the air by gunmen who deployed heavily at the funeral’s site.

Throngs of people gathered in the town to attend the funeral in the afternoon.

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.”

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.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Sunday stressed that supporting the army would serve the project of building the state and prevent civil strife, urging Akkar’s residents “to be vigilant in order not to fall into the traps set up by the Syrian regime.”

Jumblat -- who telephoned former premier Saad Hariri condemning the killing of Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahed and his companion at an army checkpoint in Akkar – reminded the ex-PM of “the honorable national stances he took when the Lebanese army confronted Fatah al-Islam’s gangs in the Nahr al-Bared camp and the embracing of the military institution during that war.”

Four Arab countries are expected this year to start witnessing major foreign investments after the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development established a one billion euro ($1.28 billion) fund, excluding Lebanon from the process for allegedly failing to ask the lending body to carry out a technical assessment on the country.

The fund’s establishment on Friday by the board of governors of the EBRD during a two-day Business Forum in London under the slogan of “Managing in Turbulent Times,” comes a year after they approved to expand the bank’s mandate following a string of popular revolts in the Arab world.