Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Thursday the need for the army to respond firmly to all security violations that are targeting the northern city of Tripoli.

He said: “There is a conspiracy to force the army out of Tripoli and leave the city as a battlefield.”

At least nine people were killed on Thursday in ongoing clashes between the rival Tripoli neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen, as different caliber mortars in addition to flare bombs were introduced to the battle for the first time.

The fighting intensified as the night fell on the city after intermittent clashes throughout the day, amid several futile attempts to reach a ceasefire.

World powers denounced on Thursday the "flagrant intervention" in Syria by Hizbullah and Iranian fighters, urging their immediate withdrawal from the war-torn country.

In a joint statement, the Friends of Syria group "called for the immediate withdrawal of Hizbullah, fighters from Iran, and other regime allied foreign fighters from Syrian territory."

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday accused Hizbullah of dragging Lebanon into war, noting that thousands of the party's members are fighting in Syria.

In a joint press conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh in Amman, Kerry also voiced concern that chaos might spill over from Syria into Lebanon, condemning the intervention of Hizbullah and Iran in the Syrian crisis.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday that Iran and Hizbullah were "propping up" Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"It is very clear that the Syrian regime is receiving a great deal of support, increasing support in recent months from outside Syria from Hizbullah and Iran,” Hague said in a news conference with his Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh in Amman.

Syria's opposition urged the Arab League and the Lebanese government on Wednesday to prevent the continued influx of Hizbullah fighters into Syria.

"We call on the Arab League and its secretary general to take a stance befitting these events," said Acting National Coalition opposition chief George Sabra.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun announced on Tuesday his readiness to have parliament vote on the Orthodox Gathering and hybrid electoral draft laws.

He said after the Change and Reform bloc's weekly meeting: “I am prepared to accept the outcomes of the votes on both of the draft laws.”

The European Union stands poised to put the military wing of Hizbullah on its list of terrorist organizations after a formal request to blacklist the group was filed by a member state Monday, diplomats said.

The request from Britain formally launches a process to blacklist the group, a move that has long been requested by Israel and which will be discussed in early June, several EU diplomats told Agence France Presse.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on Monday noted that the 1960 electoral law “will impose itself on us,” rejecting the extension of parliament's term.

“I don't have a choice and something will impose itself on us and in this case it is the 1960 law, as extension is unconstitutional,” Aoun said during an interview on MTV.

An opposition leader, rights activist and longtime dissident in Syria's rebel-held city of Raqa has been abducted, a watchdog said Monday.

"The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has learned of the abduction by an armed group of lawyer, human rights activist and head of Raqa city's (opposition) local council Abdallah al-Khalil," the Britain-based group said.