An international human rights watchdog has decried police violence against Lebanese demonstrators protesting the government's failure to resolve the country's mounting trash crisis.

Police used forced to disperse a protest of around 100 people in downtown Beirut this week after some of the demonstrators tried to break a security cordon around the government building.

Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat denounced the “barbaric” behavior that the security forces used in confronting Wednesday's protests of the You Stink campaign, assuring that the demonstrations are “righteous.”

“The protests carried out by some youth in downtown Beirut are legal and righteous, but the barbaric way used to disperse them are strongly rejected and condemned,” said Jumblat via twitter on Friday.

President Barack Obama wrote in a letter to Congress that the U.S. will uphold sanctions targeting Iran's non-nuclear activities, such as its support for Hizbullah.

Obama promised Democratic lawmakers that the U.S. will continue to keep economic pressure on Iran — and keep military options open — if his administration's nuclear deal with Tehran goes through.

A committee tasked with evaluating waste management tenders on Wednesday postponed declaring the winning bids pending further assessment, as anti-trash protesters scuffled with security forces outside the Council for Development and Reconstruction where the meeting was held.

“It is necessary to have more than one evaluation for every region,” said Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq after the meeting.

Head of the Union of Beirut Port Employees Beshara al-Asmar declared on Tuesday an open strike at the port following the resumption of waste dumping near the premises after they were halted last week.

“We were surprised to see today that the digging operations and waste dumping has resumed. Two bulldozers were brought into the area,” al-Asmar told Voice of Lebanon Radio (93.3).

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag emphasized that the Lebanese officials are primarily accountable for the political and economic situation, stressing that the long-term relations with regional countries might play a positive role in several pressing issues.

“The primary responsibility lies on the Lebanese officials whether regarding the political or economic situations,” said Kaag in an interview with Iran's News Agency IRNA on Monday.

A Syrian rebel group said Saturday that a rare ceasefire negotiated with Hizbullah fighters in a Syrian town and two villages was over as shelling resumed.

The 72-hour ceasefire in the northern rebel-held town of Zabadani, near the border with Lebanon, as well as in Foua and Kafraya, two Shiite villages in Idlib province, was reached earlier this week and was to last until Sunday.

Lebanese authorities on Saturday arrested a fugitive Islamic cleric wanted for his role in deadly clashes with the army as he tried to flee the country.

Ahmed al-Asir was apprehended at Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport while trying to travel to Nigeria via Cairo with a fake Palestinian passport, General Security announced.

The lunch that brought together Army Chief General Jean Qahwaji and the Commando Regiment chief Brig. Gen. Chamel Roukoz was not a private event and did not have any political connotations, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

“The lunch between Qahwaji and Roukoz was a public event that took place in the presence of a number of army officers. It was not a solo lunch nor did it have any political connotations,” prominent sources told the daily on condition of anonymity.

Employees of the Beirut Port held a sit-in on Thursday protesting an alleged government decision to use a nearby real estate as a dump site.

MTV said that more than 100 employees staged the sit-in and prevented trucks transporting goods from entering the port causing long queues at the Port entrance.