Bombardments by troops saw fighting ground to a standstill on Tuesday in Syria's second city Aleppo, a watchdog said, amid reports a civilian refuge was targeted in the same province.

Water supplies were largely restored in the northern city three days after a main pipeline was ruptured during clashes between government forces and rebel fighters, witnesses and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Former General Security chief Jamil al-Sayyed was accompanying former Minister Michel Samaha while he was transporting explosives from Syria to Lebanon, said various media reports on Monday.

They said that Intelligence Bureau investigations indicate that Sayyed was involved in the case.

Syrian rebels have summarily executed at least 20 soldiers in the embattled northern city of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday.

Captured at a military compound during a rebel attack in the eastern district of Hanano, the soldiers had their eyes blindfolded and hands tied behind their backs before they were lined up and shot, sometime over the weekend, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat hoped on Tuesday that Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi's visit to Mount Lebanon over the weekend would “pave the way to further cooperation and coordination in matters that benefit the region and all of its residents.”

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “Al-Rahi's visit was a success on all levels.”

The "Friends of Syria" group is to meet in the Netherlands next week to broaden the scope of sanctions and sharpen specific measures against the Damascus regime, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

The September 20 meeting comes after the European Union agreed Saturday on the need to beef up sanctions against President Bashar Assad inner circle as the world struggles to resolve the bloody 18-month conflict.

President Michel Suleiman stressed on Monday that the security forces and army in Lebanon are not neglecting laying down the law against security violators.

He told the National News Agency: “Legal measures are being taken against the violators.”

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that the new U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi will meet Syrian President Bashar Assad when he travels to the conflict-ravaged country.

"Special representative Brahimi is soon going to have a meeting with Syrian authorities including president Assad, and he has already been engaged with the key stakeholders," Ban told a news conference in Bern, without providing more details about the highly anticipated visit.

Snakes, scorpions and swirling dust didn't deter a Syrian couple from getting married at Jordan's tent city for refugees.

A carpenter, Hodasa al-Hariri, 23, married his 20-year-old cousin, Hanan al-Hariri, in a simple ceremony on Sunday at the Zaatari camp.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Monday that the government will not disassociate itself from the turmoil in Syria when there are attempts by the regime to ignite the situation in Lebanon.

“We will take the necessary measures... We should reorganize the relations between Syria and Lebanon calmly and in a comprehensive way,” Miqati told reporters during a press conference at the Grand Serail.

Iran said it was joining officials from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey for a four-way "contact group" meeting in Cairo looking at ways to calm the conflict in Syria.

An Iranian deputy foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, had left Tehran for the Egyptian capital to take part in the meeting, foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told Iran's Al-Alam Arabic-language broadcaster.