The Progressive Socialist Party said that Sunday’s Qabrshmoun incident was part of a campaign aiming to limit the role of Druze leader and PSP chief Walid Jumblat and that it began with “sizing down” his representation in the Cabinet, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on Monday met with Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah in Kuwait.

He was accompanied by a PSP delegation comprising Industry Minister Wael Abu Faour, ex-minister Ghazi Aridi, MP Hadi Abu al-Hosn and PSP deputy head for foreign affairs Dureid Yaghi.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Monday voiced regret over “the bloody incidents” that occurred Sunday in the Aley town of Qabrshmoun and strongly condemned “the armed attack that almost killed a government minister and resulted in the death of two of his bodyguards.”

“It ignited the fire of strife, disrupted peace and sparked panic and fear,” al-Rahi lamented.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Monday called for “prudence and wisdom” in the wake of the deadly incident in the Aley town of Qabrshmoun.

“The time now is for resorting to prudence and wisdom and for exerting utmost efforts to preserve unity and public order and we have full confidence in the wise leaders of Mount Lebanon,” Berri said.

Arab Tawhid Party leader ex-minister Wiam Wahhab on Monday called for the arrest of the gunmen who exchanged fire with the bodyguards of State Minister for Refugee Affairs Saleh al-Gharib and killed two of them.

“The Higher Defense Council's decisions are excellent and security must be imposed on everyone,” Wahhab tweeted.

Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan on Monday described the deadly clash in the Aley town of Qabrshmoun as a “premeditated sedition,” as he lashed out at Education Minister and Aley MP Akram Shehayyeb of the Progressive Socialist Party.

“The two martyrs Rami Salman and Samer Abu Farraj are the victims of a premeditated sedition that was incited two days in advance and the instigator is the sedition MP who sits around the Cabinet table and does not respect the simplest rules of coexistence, citizens' safety and the safety of his people. He is a vampire!” Arslan said, referring to Shehayyeb without naming him.

Lebanon's top defense council has ordered an investigation into a deadly shooting in the Mount Lebanon region of Aley that involved the convoy of Minister Saleh a-Gharib.

The Higher Defense Council held a meeting Monday attended by President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Cabinet ministers and heads of Lebanon's security and military agencies.

Supporters of the Lebanese Democratic Party and relatives of two guards killed in gunfire a day earlier, briefly blocked with burning tires the Mount Lebanon highway of Bhamdoun, as the sound of heavy shooting into the air was heard on Monday.

The Lebanese Army on Monday reinforced security measures and intensified its patrols in the towns and villages of Aley after Sunday’s armed clash in the town of Qabrshmoun that left two dead and one wounded, the National News Agency reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Hizbullah has begun to pull back many of its units from Syrian territory and that the operation has been taking place away from the media spotlight, the Saudi Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported.