Protesters again blocked the road leading to the Naameh landfill on Tuesday after a 48-hour deadline they had given for the closure of the controversial facility ended at 6:00 p.m.

“Demonstrators are rallying in the middle of the road at the landfill's entrance, raising banners and shouting slogans calling for the closure of the landfill,” state-run National News Agency reported.

Security forces arrested on Tuesday the robber of the car that exploded in the Beirut neighborhood of Haret Hreik, and the person that stole the booby-trapped vehicle that targeted the eastern town of Hermel earlier this month.

"Security forces detained both robbers of the cars used in Tuesday's explosion and in Hermel's blast,” al-Jadeed television reported.

Tehran and Damascus condemned on Tuesday the deadly explosion that targeted Beirut's southern neighborhood of Haret Hreik.

"We deplore the terrorist bombing that hit (Beirut's suburb of) Dahieh and that killed a number of innocent people and wounded many others,” a statement released by the Syrian council of ministers said.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Tuesday announced the FPM's rejection of any rotation of ministerial portfolios in the new cabinet, saying any such attempt would be considered an attack on the movement.

“We reject the notion of holding onto any ministerial portfolio, as rotation is acceptable when the cabinet changes, but we reject any manipulation targeting the basis of productivity during the short interval of time (that precedes the presidential vote and the formation of a new cabinet.) That would be a suspicious move aimed at targeting our work (at the ministries),” said Aoun in a written statement he recited after the Change and Reform bloc's weekly meeting.

“This is the third bombing that I escape, I don't know if the fourth will kill me – feeling sad,” 18-year-old Maria Hussein al-Jawhari said on Facebook on January 2 in the wake of the deadly blast that rocked al-Arid Street in Haret Hreik.

“Nineteen days later and in the same location, the fourth explosion went off, killing Maria, who joined the martyrs Malak Zahwi and Ali Hasan Khadra who were martyred in a bombing that she escaped, and Mohammed al-Shaar who was martyred in the Starco blast,” An Nahar newspaper reported.

Several western countries denounced on Tuesday the car bombing that targeted a residential and commercial street in Beirut's southern suburb of Haret Hreik that has killed and wounded a number of people.

The United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly considered the explosion “a further deeply disturbing act of indiscriminate terror.”

President Michel Suleiman called on Tuesday for unity among the Lebanese to confront terrorism, urging the upcoming cabinet should work on safeguarding the country's stability once it's formed.

“The next cabinet should work on safeguarding the country's security and stability,” Suleiman said after meeting with the consular corps in the Baabda Palace.

One person was killed and several others were injured in clashes between the rival Tripoli neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen on Tuesday, raising the death toll to seven after five days of clashes.

The fighting renewed in the evening, with al-Jadeed TV reporting that "RPG explosions and machinegun fire are being heard in Tripoli."

Lebanese officials denounced on Tuesday a suicide attack that targeted Haret Hreik district, a Hizbullah stronghold, which was rocked by a similar blast in early January.

Officials called on the Lebanese to united, considering that the attack targets Lebanon as a nation and not only Dahiyeh.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour stressed on Tuesday that Iran shouldn't be banned from taking part in this week's Syria peace conference as each country could play a role in making the talks succeed.

“Iran shouldn't be barred neither Saudi Arabia. Their presence is of significant importance,” Mansour told reporters at the airport ahead of traveling to Switzerland to attend Geneva II peace talks on Syria.