The pope's safety could be at risk during a planned visit to Lebanon next month, a Jesuit priest who was recently forced to leave Syria warned Wednesday.

Pope Benedict XVI is due to visit Lebanon from September 14-16 to bring a message of peace and call for greater respect for religious pluralism.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat noted on Thursday that the “battles in Tripoli” will not affect the Syrian crisis, despite being linked to it.

He told the PSP website: “The Tripoli unrest is aimed at diverting attention from the Syrian crisis.”

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri lashed out at LBCI channel for broadcasting a report claiming that he received huge financial aid from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

“This report is completely false,” Hariri’s press office said in a statement on Thursday.

U.N. Deputy Special Coordinator for Lebanon Robert Watkins warned on Thursday that the latest armed clashes and kidnappings undermine the efforts to promote stability, urging the authorities to reject non-state actors from “taking the law into their own hands.”

The U.N. “has been following closely and with concern recent security incidents in the country, particularly the kidnappings targeting Syrian nationals and others in Lebanon as well as armed clashes that have been taking place in the past few days in Tripoli,” Watkins said following talks with Interior Minister Marwan Charbel.

Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi handed parliament on Thursday a request to lift immunity off MP Moeen al-Merehbi.

The request was made to parliament’s general secretariat and at the behest of the Army Command after it accused him of incitement against the army, reported al-Jadeed television.

Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn warned on Thursday that the deadly gunbattles among the residents of the northern city of Tripoli could spill over to other areas in Lebanon.

In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3), Ghosn said: “The continued fighting in Tripoli could affect the entire country.”

Taking advantage of a tenuous ceasefire, residents of Tripoli’s Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen returned to their neighborhoods Thursday to inspect the damage, after four days of sectarian fighting killed 10 people.

Earlier in the day renewed fighting killed one person and wounded two others, a security source had said.

Information Minister Walid al-Daouq said on Thursday that the National Media Council (NMC) didn’t settle yet the way it will deal with the Lebanese broadcasting audio-visual channels committing violations.

“We’re open to all options,” Daouq told As Safir newspaper.

Speaker Nabih Berri and Premier Najib Miqati traded criticism for the second day on Thursday after the head of the Amal movement accused the government of not exerting strong efforts to resolve the country’s turmoil.

In remarks to An Nahar daily, Berri wondered how the cabinet postponed its session till the end of the month amid the deadly gunbattles in the northern city of Tripoli and the series of kidnappings of Syrian and Turkish nationals last week.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour slammed on Thursday officials who are demanding the government to expel the Syrian Ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali, noting that such a move violates diplomatic norms and conventions.

“We follow certain norms that we will not bend,” Mansour said in comments published in al-Joumhouria newspaper.