Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Friday hit back at Syria over a letter sent by its permanent U.N. envoy Bashar al-Jaafari to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon about the presence of alleged anti-Syria “terrorists” in Lebanon.

Miqati stressed that “the Lebanese government is fully performing its duty as to combating any type of terror operations, and in monitoring the Lebanese border, controlling the security situation and addressing any security gaps.”

Regime forces fired on protesters who took to the streets of Aleppo on Friday, wounding several people at the biggest rally seen in Syria's second city since a revolt erupted last year, as at least 20 people were killed across the country, a rights group and activists said.

The Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said security forces killed nine people in the central province of Homs, three in the central province of Hama, three in the northwestern province of Idlib, two in the southern province of Daraa, two in the northern province of Aleppo and a person in the Damascus suburb of Douma.

Only hours after the Lebanese army intercepted the weapon-laden ship Lutfallah II off Tripoli’s coast, the Lebanese media was buzzing with reports attributed to security and political officials and claiming that the Lebanese army had received intelligence information from “major Western states,” with some saying that the U.S. was behind the intelligence tip-off.

The reports spoke of an arms shipment destined for the Syrian opposition, which Washington feared would end up in the hands of pro-Qaida gunmen practicing their activities in Syria and Lebanon – which further allowed the army to intercept the ship and seize its cargo.

Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi confirmed Thursday that he has filed a lawsuit against the General Directorate of General Security, rejecting any attempt to “implicate” him without his consent in the latest unrest in Tripoli.

The northern city has been witnessing intermittent deadly clashes since five days that were sparked by the arrest on Saturday of Islamist activist Shadi al-Mawlawi by General Security agents at the entrance of an office belonging to Safadi.

Herman von Hebel, Registrar of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, has designated one lead counsel and two co-counsel to represent the victims of the February 14, 2005 attack in the Ayyash et al. proceedings, the court said in a statement on Wednesday.

Pre-Trial Judge Daniel Fransen decided on May 8 to grant 58 people the right to participate as victims in the proceedings as one group.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday accused President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat of “practicing obstruction” and “pushing the country to a harmful course.”

“They deprived us of the majority that allows us to take decisions. Suleiman is obstructing the L.L.8,900 billion decree and saying there are obstacles,” said Aoun during an interview on his movement’s mouthpiece OTV.

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.

The Higher Defense Council on Sunday discussed the security situation in unrest-hit Tripoli, lauding the role of security agencies in “preserving security, busting terrorist networks, freeing abductees and curbing the trafficking of arms across the Lebanese areas.”

Speaking after an emergency meeting at the Baabda Palace, the council’s spokesman, Maj. Gen. Adnan Merheb, stressed the conferees’ keenness on preserving civil peace in the country, noting that “to this end, the council has given the necessary instructions to the military and security institutions and specified the missions of the ministries, administrations and relevant authorities.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Sunday stressed “the need to reach a political solution to the problem” in unrest-hit Tripoli that would “spare the army a confrontation on Tripoli and keep it away from political disputes,” warning of “traps set up by the Syrian regime.”

According to a statement issued by the PSP, Jumblat contacted several security and political officials, urging “the release of Mr. Shadi al-Mawlawi and the addressing of the situation according to the legal norms, to prevent the recurrence of illegal arrests by sides that lack jurisdiction.”

Al-Mustaqbal bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora urged the cabinet on Saturday to start preparing the 2012 state budget and to pledge finishing it within two months.

“The problem can’t be resolved in a disorganized and discretionary manner,” Saniora said during a meeting with al-Mustaqbal delegation in his office in Sidon.