The United Nations Security Council has “strongly condemned” the suicide bombing in the northern city of Tripoli and expressed its determination to combat terrorism on all fronts.

In a press statement issued on Sunday, Council members reaffirmed that “terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, and that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable regardless of their motivation.”

Grief engulfed the Tripoli district of Jabal Mohsen on Sunday during the funeral of nine victims who were killed in yesterday’s twin suicide bombing, as the city's leaders stressed the need to “pursue the criminals” and stand by the state and its security forces.

Head of the Islamic Alawite Council Sheikh Assad Assi led a huge crowd of mourners, only hours after the evening attack on a popular Jabal Mohsen cafe that also left 37 people wounded.

The United States on Sunday condemned the Jabal Mohsen suicide bombing that killed nine people and pledged its support for Lebanon's security forces.

"The United States strongly condemns yesterday’s suicide bombing at the Omran Cafe in the Jabal Mohsen neighborhood of Tripoli, Lebanon," said Marie Harf, the State Department's deputy spokeswoman.

Well-informed Lebanese officials said on Saturday that the Syrian side depicted the latest measures taken by Lebanon's government to control the influx of Syrian refugees as a “flagrant violation of the Lebanese-Syrian treaty that could aggravate relations between the two neighboring countries”.

The sources also did not rule out the possibility that the Syrian authorities could take similar measures as a retaliatory action by closing the transit border line between Lebanon and the Arab countries.

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah announced Friday that his party's fighters are maintaining full preparedness on the eastern border to confront any takfiri assault, alongside the army and security forces, noting that the inter-Christian dialogue that got underway might lead to resolving the presidential crisis.

“I salute the officers and soldiers of the army and the Islamic resistance who are deployed on the border and are protecting the country against Israeli and takfiri terrorist attacks,” Nasrallah said in a televised address during a ceremony held by the Hizbullah-affiliated al-Imdad Islamic Charitable Association.

The Lebanese intelligence had informed its European counterparts that several jihadist groups linked to organizations in Syria or even in Europe will carry out a huge terrorist act on French territories.

According to As Safir newspaper published on Friday, several intelligence agencies, including that of Lebanon, warned European countries that jihadists will target France with terrorist acts.

A Syrian man and a six-year-old boy died in the cold as a major storm dumped snow and rain on Lebanon, bringing misery to thousands of Syrian refugees living in makeshift camps throughout the country.

"We have transported the bodies of two Syrians, a man and a six-year-old boy, who were found dead in Ain al-Joz in the mountains of Shebaa" in south Lebanon, a Red Cross source told Agence France Presse.

U.S. officials are optimistic about electing a Lebanese president before March. A official at the State Department urged the Lebanese parties to agree on a president without foreign interference, and called on them to give up on their international alignments to solve their national issues privately.

The source said in an interview with As Safir: “If the Lebanese parties consulted each other throughout January, then the presidential elections may take place before March.”

Prime Minister Tammam Salam and ministers of the Free Patriotic Movement are expected to raise the issue of the mechanism governing the cabinet’s work because of what they described as the “obstruction practiced by ministers of the Kataeb party,” the al-Akhbar daily reported on Monday.

During Thursday's cabinet session, Salam and FPM ministers will bring up the issue of changing the mechanism considering that “things cannot stay the way they are because of the obstruction of some representative parties, mainly the Kataeb, which are hampering a number of cabinet files,” the daily added.

Lebanon is to impose visa restrictions on Syrians for the first time after being overwhelmed by an influx of more than 1.1 million refugees, according to documents published online.

The new regulations, posted on the website of the General Security agency, come into effect on January 5 and lay out various categories, including for tourism and medical treatment.