Jeddah, Asharq Al-Awsat—Saudi Arabia has called on the people of Lebanon to act “wisely” and end the escalating fighting in the city of Tripoli.

The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal as saying: “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is monitoring with great concern and attention the bloody incidents in the Lebanese city of Tripoli as the death toll of innocents rises.”

He characterized the increasing death toll as “a development that also targets the country’s infrastructure, serves the enemies of the nation and only benefits those who carry no good wishes for Lebanon and its people.”

Prince Saud Al-Faisal also confirmed Saudi Arabia’s “firm position towards enhancing the power of the Lebanese state … and its confidence in the keenness of the Lebanese government to take whatever action to preserve the security and stability of the Lebanese people.”

The Foreign Minister emphasized that “the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia hereby urges all concerned parties to put an end to this fighting, act with the utmost wisdom, refrain from being lured by calls that embody evil to Lebanon and its people, and desist from tampering in their country’s security, safety and stability.”

The violence in the Lebanese city of Tripoli is tied to the conflict across the border in Syria, where a Sunni-led uprising has been fighting for more than two years to overthrow the regime of Alawite Bashar Al-Assad. The fighting in Tripoli has largely been confined to the Alawite districts of the city.

Over the past five weeks, approximately three dozen people have been killed in Lebanon’s second-largest city as the result of sectarian fighting between the Sunni and Alawite communities. This represents the worst sectarian fighting Lebanon has witnessed in nearly a quarter of a century.

Earlier this week, supporters and opponents of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad exchanged gunfire in Tripoli on at least three separate occasions, resulting in a number of deaths and more than 42 injuries.