The assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan postponed the release of the remaining Lebanese pilgrims who were kidnapped in Syria in May.

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper on Tuesday, the bombing in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh district on Friday suspended the initiative “circumstantially.”

Special Tribunal for Lebanon spokesman Marten Youssef said on Tuesday that referring the assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan requires a decision by the United Nations Security Council.

If the Security Council decided to refer this crime or other crimes to the STL then it will work on accomplishing that, Youssef said in comments published in As Safir.

The United States will send a Federal Bureau of Investigation team to help Lebanon probe Ashrafiyeh car bombing that killed Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan, officials said Monday.

But U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stressed Washington's support for Lebanon's sovereignty, in a phone call with Prime Minister Najib Miqati, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.

The Lebanese Forces parliamentary bloc on Monday stressed that the bomb attack that killed Intelligence Bureau chief Maj. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan and three other people “requires rejecting the conventional approaches” towards such incidents.

In a statement issued after an emergency meeting in Maarab headed by LF leader Samir Geagea, the bloc said “the call for speeding up investigations into this crime is an approach that did not solve the mystery of any of the previous bombings, knowing that the martyr Major General was the one behind unveiling some of the plots that others sought to conceal.”

Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Monday warned that “irresponsible street action serves the plot of the criminals who want to drag the country into chaos and strife," one day after angry mourners tried to storm the Grand Serail – the government's headquarters – and in the wake of deadly clashes in Tripoli and Beirut.

“The objective behind the assassination of (Intelligence Bureau chief) Maj. Gen. (Wissam) al-Hasan is undermining stability and civil peace,” Miqati said on the social networking website Twitter.

The Palestinian factions in Lebanon on Monday issued a joint statement stressing that any of their members did not take part in the clashes that erupted in Beirut overnight Sunday, after the Army Command said a Palestinian gunman was killed in an exchange of gunfire with an army patrol.

Al-Jadeed television had reported that Palestinian fighters were involved in the violence.

Progressive Socialist Party leader warned on Monday against forcing the government to “carry more than it can bear” in Lebanon in light of the increased demands for its resignation in the wake of the assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan on Friday.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “Insisting on the government's resignation will lead Lebanon to a vacuum and the country into the Syrian regime's trap.”

The Army Command stressed on Monday that Lebanon's security is a “red line” and it will take strict measures against all those who are targeting security, as Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji inspected the army units deployed in Beirut.

It said in a statement: “We will not allow Lebanon to once again be turned into an open ground for regional conflicts.”

Al-Mustaqbal bloc MP Mohammed Kabbara on Monday called for the government's departure and the formation of a salvation government, urging Tripoli's residents to “fully cooperate with the army in order to restore security,” after four people were killed and 18 others wounded in clashes in the northern city.

“Security in the city of Tripoli is a red line,” said Kabbara, reciting a statement issued after a meeting for Tripoli's dignitaries at his residence.

The ambassadors to Lebanon of the five permanent United Nations Security Council members held talks on Monday with President Michel Suleiman on the current security situation in Lebanon.

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly said after the meeting that the five countries support the president's efforts to ease the tensions and put an end to the security chaos.