Tripoli Mufti Sheikh Malek al-Shaar has hoped for the announcement of a leadership council over the weekend to contain any incident that could erupt in the northern city.

In remarks to al-Liwaa daily published Tuesday, al-Shaar said that a committee was formed on Monday after a meeting held between al-Mustaqbal bloc leader Fouad Saniora and Tripoli MPs and officials.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat has expressed fears that the U.S. will settle scores with Syria in Lebanon through targeting the new Lebanese cabinet.

“According to the opposition and the so-called international community, this is Hizbullah’s cabinet, which means Syria’s (government),” Jumblat told al-Akhbar newspaper on Tuesday. “Then avenging Damascus would be by a fierce battle through imposing sanctions on Lebanon.”

President Michel Suleiman has said the containment of the deadly clashes in the northern port city of Tripoli last week were “a sign that the cabinet is capable of preserving stability,” stressing that its lifespan depends on the level of its performance.

In his first interview after the formation of Premier Najib Miqati’s government, Suleiman told An Nahar daily published Tuesday that the Tripoli “test succeeded in (enabling the cabinet) to hold a grip on the security situation."

The Phalange Party stated on Monday that the clashes in Tripoli would not have erupted had the Lebanese parties maintained their neutrality regarding the developments in Syria.

It said in a statement after its weekly politburo meeting: “It’s unfortunate that Syria is maintaining its negative policies towards Lebanon instead of tackling its accumulating internal affairs and introducing reform before it’s too late.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman stated on Monday that even though the international community has focused its attention on the developments in the Arab world and negotiations between Palestine and Israel, the real danger in the region comes from Iran,

Confronting this danger should be a priority for Israel’s foreign policy, he added.

Pro-democracy activists said the three-month-old "revolt" in Syria must go on after a speech by President Bashar al-Assad on Monday that they said only deepened the crisis.

The Coordination Committee, an umbrella group of activists calling for street protests, called for "the revolution to carry on until all its aims have been achieved."

President Bashar Assad said on Monday that dialogue could lead to a new constitution and even the end of his Baath party's monopoly on power but refused to reform Syria under "chaos."

After widespread condemnation of a brutal crackdown on anti-regime protests, the country was at a "turning point," he said in a televised speech at Damascus University, vowing Syria would emerge stronger from the "plotting" against it.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Monday that Syrian President Bashar Assad must implement reforms in his country or step aside, as the embattled leader prepared to make a major speech.

Hague, on arrival at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, said he hoped Turkey would use its influence on Damascus to tell the regime that "they are losing legitimacy that Assad should reform or step aside."

President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that Russia was ready to use its veto to block a Western-sponsored resolution on Syria at the United Nations as it could be used as cover for military action.

Speaking in an interview with the Financial Times whose full transcript was released by the Kremlin, Medvedev argued that March's U.N. Security Council vote on Libya had paved the way for a military operation.

Turkey has begun extending aid across its border with Syria to help people who have massed there fleeing unrest, the emergency situations agency said Sunday.

"Distribution of humanitarian aid has begun to meet the urgent food needs of Syrian citizens waiting on the Syrian side of our border," the statement, posted on the agency's website, said.