Prime Minister Najib Miqati stressed on Wednesday the importance of all concerned factions to support the army in its duties to maintain stability in Lebanon in light of the clashes in the northern city of Tripoli and the series of kidnappings that started last week.

His visitors quoted him as saying: “No political party can consider itself not responsible for the recent developments or their repercussions.”

Al-Jaafar clan denied on Wednesday media reports saying that it has formed a military wing, stressing solidarity with the families of the kidnapped Lebanese in Syria.

“We haven’t formed any military wing as long as there is an army that protects the nation.” the clan said in a statement.

France is providing the Syrian opposition with "non-lethal" military aid, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Wednesday.

Speaking on BFMTV-RMC radio, Ayrault said France had responded positively to a request for help from the rebels seeking to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The longest serving Syrian prisoner in Israel has been freed after 27 years behind bars, Syria's official news agency SANA said on Wednesday.

It said Sedki al-Maket, who was arrested in August 1985 for resisting the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights, was released and had returned to his home town on the strategic plateau.

Syrian military planes pounded a rebel-held area of the northern city of Aleppo on Wednesday as opposition fighters claimed to have seized parts of a town on the Iraqi border, a watchdog said.

Twelve people were also killed by troops in a raid on a Damascus district, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a day after it reported dozens killed when regime forces stormed another suburb of the capital.

The National Media Council (NMC) will demand the Lebanese broadcasting audio-visual channels to refrain from creating sectarian strife and threatening the national security, local newspapers reported on Wednesday.

The NMC is scheduled to hold a meeting on Friday to tackle the uncontrolled broadcasting by some channels that failed to commit to the legal boundaries of the audio-visual law.

President Michel Suleiman will head to Iran on August 29 to attend the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran, As Safir newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The daily reported that Suleiman is expected to hold talks with several counterparts including Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Japan Tobacco said Wednesday it was being probed by the European Union after a report it broke sanctions by shipping cigarettes to a firm linked to the Syrian regime, but denied any wrongdoing.

Japan Tobacco (JT), which is 50 percent owned by the government, insisted its Geneva-based subsidiary JT International (JTI) had done nothing wrong amid claims it supplied a firm with family links to President Bashar Assad.

The United State has expressed deep concern over the violence in the northern city of Tripoli and the kidnappings spree of Syrian and Turkish nationals across Lebanon.

“We are very concerned about this violence and the spillover effect from what’s going on in Syria, and particularly the latest violence in Tripoli,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Tuesday.

Speaker Nabih Berri expressed anger on Wednesday over the chaotic situation in Lebanon, stressing that the airport road is a “red line,” local newspapers reported.

“The hand of whoever blocks the airport road will be cut,” Berri told As Safir newspaper.