The United States is pushing the U.N. Security Council to threaten tough measures against the Syrian regime over its alleged use of chlorine in attacks, according to a draft resolution circulated to members on Wednesday.

The text obtained by Agence France Presse states that the Security Council "decides in the event of future non-compliance... to impose measures under chapter 7" of the U.N. charter, which provides for sanctions and possibly military force.

The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday called for the stepping up of U.N.-brokered talks on ending a growing crisis in Yemen after President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's escape from house arrest.

The Western-backed president was ousted by the Shiite Huthi militia last month and placed under house arrest in Sanaa, but at the weekend he managed to flee the capital and resurfaced in the southern port city of Aden.  

French Ambassador Patrice Paoli has denied that Paris was drafting a U.N. Security Council Resolution against Hizbullah as a top official in New York warned that the situation in the border area between Lebanon and Israel remains “very fragile.”

France “calls for the protection of Lebanon's sovereignty, its territorial integrity and Resolution 1701,” Paoli said in remarks published in An Nahar daily on Friday.

The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday condemned "in the strongest terms" last week's killing of a Spanish peacekeeper in southern Lebanon and decided to set up a board of inquiry to investigate his death, a senior U.N. official said.

Wednesday's statement comes a week after Cpl. Francisco Javier Soria Toledo was killed during the Israeli military's exchange of fire with Hizbullah in a disputed border area.

The U.N. Security Council demanded the immediate release of all hostages held by the Islamic State group, as Jordan vowed to do everything it can to save the life of a pilot captured by the militants.

The 15-member council condemned on Sunday the "heinous and cowardly" murder of a Japanese journalist after the jihadist group claimed he had been beheaded.

The March 14 alliance on Thursday urged the Lebanese people to back the government of Prime Minister Tammam Salam and ask it to take into its own hands the decision of war and peace.

Following a meeting, the alliance's general-secretariat encouraged “the Lebanese to stand united behind their government, and ask it to defend them and hold onto the decision of war and peace.”

The U.N. Security Council condemned on Wednesday the death of a Spanish U.N. peacekeeper during the Israeli military's exchange of fire with Hizbullah in a disputed border area.

The Council condemned his death in the strongest terms and offered its deepest sympathies.

U.N. relief efforts in war-torn Syria are struggling to reach 40 percent of civilians in need and face a major funding shortfall, a senior U.N. aid official said Wednesday.

As the war heads toward a fifth year, some 4.8 million Syrians or around 40 percent of the total 12.2 million people in need of help are difficult to reach, said Assistant Secretary-General for aid Kang Kyung-wha.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned a deadly rocket attack in Ukraine's government-held port of Mariupol on Saturday and denounced "provocative statements" made by pro-Russian separatist fighters.

Ban's remarks came after pro-Kremlin rebels announced a major new offensive and heavy rocket fire killed at least 30 people and wounded around 100 in Mariupol, a strategic port linking separatist territory with Russian-occupied Crimea.

Defiant Shiite militiamen seized control of Yemen's presidential palace and attacked President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi's residence Tuesday in an apparent bid to overthrow the embattled government, drawing condemnation from the U.N. Security Council.

The council backed Hadi as "the legitimate authority" and called on all parties and political actors in Yemen to stand with the government "to keep the country on track to stability and security."