Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri slammed on Saturday the failure to deliver the telecommunications data to the investigations into the assassination attempts against March 14 leaders.

He said via Twitter: “This is simply unacceptable and requires that Lebanese authorities at the highest level take a stand on this critical national issue.”

Syrian rebels controlled on Saturday one of the three main border crossings between Iraq and Syria despite shelling from President Bashar Assad's forces, Iraqi officials told AFP.

The officials also said Syrian refugees had attempted to enter Iraq but Baghdad had ordered its security forces not to allow them to cross into the country from any entry points.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said Saturday that Syrian authorities have "manifestly failed" to protect civilians and called on the international community to act to stop the violence.

"The Syrian government has manifestly failed to protect civilians and the international community has a collective responsibility to live up to the U.N. charter and act on its principles," Ban said during a visit to Croatia's Brijuni Island as part of a week-long Balkans tour.

At least 20 people were killed across Syria on Saturday, as the clock started ticking on a 30-day deadline for violence to abate sufficiently for a troubled U.N. observer mission to remain in place.

At least 12 civilians were among the dead as clashes rocked both of the country's largest cities, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour stated that Lebanon is in need of $115 million to aid Syrian refugees who have poured into the country, reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday.

He told the newspaper: “Lebanon is unable to support the burden of assisting the Syrians.”

Iraq's government said on Friday it was unable to provide help for Syrian refugees looking to escape their country's ongoing strife because of the poor security situation within Iraq.

"Our borders are desert areas, and we cannot provide aid for refugees and because of the security situation," government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said in an interview on Iraqiya state TV, to explain why Iraq would not be able to support Syrian refugees.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Western powers on Friday not to take unilateral action against the Syrian government outside the U.N. Security Council.

The Kremlin said Putin delivered the comments at a closed meeting of Russia's powerful Security Council that groups all the top ministers and decides strategy on the most sensitive foreign and domestic affairs.

The U.N. Security Council on Friday unanimously voted to let the U.N. observer mission in Syria stay for a "final" 30 days, but remained bitterly divided over the conflict.

Russia had threatened to veto a Syria resolution for the second time in two days, but its ambassador Vitaly Churkin finally backed a resolution proposed by Britain.

Switzerland on Friday lifted an arms embargo against the United Arab Emirates after the two sides agreed to investigate how Swiss hand grenades sold to the UAE wound up in Syria, the government said.

The temporary embargo was imposed on July 4 after Swiss media published photographs of hand grenades manufactured by the Swiss group Ruag found at an unspecified location in Syria.

Black smoke billowed from ruined homes and three bloodied corpses lay on Friday in a square in Midan, the Damascus district retaken by regime forces early in the day after fierce firefights with rebels.

The Syrian military escorted journalists in two armored personnel carriers into Midan in the south of the Syrian capital after saying it had "cleaned" the district of "terrorists" -- a term the regime uses to describe rebel fighters.