Mustaqbal bloc MP Nouhad al-Mashnouq revealed that his latest talks with former Prime Minister Saad Hariri were aimed at agreeing on the March 14 camp's next line of action in the wake of the assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau chief Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan, reported An Nahar daily on Friday.

He told the daily that a new government should be comprised of “technocrats, whose political agenda should be based on the Baabda Declaration.”

Syria's army and main rebel force said they will cease fire on Friday, in line with an internationally backed truce during a Muslim holiday, but both reserved the right to respond to any aggression.

A peace initiative by U.N. and Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi calls for a truce during the four-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha from Friday marking the end of the hajj pilgrimage.

The members of a U.N. probe into rights abuses in Syria on Thursday said "crimes against humanity" and "war crimes" were happening in the country, and said they were trying to set up a visit to Damascus.

One of the newest members of the four-person team, renowned former war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte, told reporters in Geneva that "crimes against humanity and war crimes for sure" were being committed in Syria.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea lashed out on Thursday at Lebanese security agencies, accusing some officials of carrying out an Iranian-Syrian plot undertaken by Hizbullah inside the country.

“If the case of (former information) Minister Michel Samaha, which led to the assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head Brigadier General Wissam al-Hasan last week fell in the wrong hands, they might have covered the matter up and Lebanon would have witnessed greater havoc,” Geagea said in comments published in the Saudi daily al-Watan.

Syrian rebel forces took over a strategically important Kurdish neighborhood in Aleppo and seized a military post in the country's northeast on Thursday, residents and a watchdog said.

As observers waited to see if President Bashar Assad's regime will accept the proposal for a ceasefire during the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, residents in Aleppo's northern Ashrafiyeh district told AFP about 200 rebels had moved in to the area for the first time.

Army Intelligence succeeded in arresting suspects on charges of belonging to the al-Qaida terrorist organization, reported al-Joumhouria newspaper on Thursday.

Security sources told the daily that the army arrested Malaysian nationals Rafik Mohammed Aaref and Mohammed Razin Shaaban on charges of being members of the organization.

Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali on Wednesday denied that his country was involved in the assassination of Intelligence Bureau chief Maj. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan, saying Israel or “some Takfiri forces” might be behind the crime.

“Lebanon's stability is in the interest of Syria which condemns all assassinations and is preoccupied with its internal crisis and with confronting the conspiracies plotted by intelligence agents in Europe, the world and the region,” Ali said following talks with Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour.

The rebel Free Syrian Army will cease fire during this week's Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday if government forces stop shooting first, its commander said on Wednesday.

"The FSA will stop firing if the regime stops," said FSA military council chief General Mustafa al-Sheikh, speaking to Agence France Presse by telephone from Turkey in reference to a proposal by international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

Syrian warplanes raided the rebel-held town of Maaret al-Numan on Wednesday, monitors said, as peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi prepared to brief the U.N. Security Council on his ceasefire efforts.

The U.N.-Arab League envoy has proposed a ceasefire for the Muslim holidays of Eid al-Adha which start on Friday but without securing any firm commitment from the government or rebels who have been locked in conflict for the past 19 months.

Jordanian police said on Tuesday they have arrested seven Syrians for carrying 35 "advanced" walkie-talkies, which are banned in the kingdom.

"The seven Syrian men were arrested on Monday in Amman and Irbid (in the north)," police spokesman Mohammed Khatib told Agence France Presse.