U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman hoped on Wednesday that the conflict in Syria would not reach Lebanon and criticized the region’s countries for “not doing enough” to support the Syrian opposition.

Following talks with Premier Najib Miqati at the Grand Serail at the end of his visit, Lieberman also praised the Lebanese government for its assistance to Syrian refugees who have fled the violence in their country.

Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali hailed on Wednesday the Lebanese navy’s interception of weapons aboard the Sierra Leone-flagged Lutfallah II ship.

“The arms containers were destined to the Syrian opposition and their accomplices… especially when the political and security leadership in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other countries are behind the incidents in Syria, Lebanon and the region,” Ali told reporters after meeting with Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour.

Fifteen Syrian regime troops, including two colonels, were killed in an ambush by rebels at dawn Wednesday in the northern province of Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based watchdog said the ambush took place near the village of al-Rai, scene of clashes between opposition fighters and regime forces.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon denied on Wednesday media reports that the mission is mulling to move units and equipment to Syria to help the U.N. observer team there.

“Media reports that UNIFIL is studying the possibility of transferring some units from Lebanon to Syria and mainly tanks are not true,” UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday gave the U.S. Treasury authority to stop Syria and Iran wriggling out of sanctions by going after foreign firms, banks or individuals that ease their isolation.

The move, contained in an executive order, will allow the Treasury to publicly identify those engaging in "evasive and deceptive activities" and bar them from access to the U.S. financial and economic sectors, officials said.

Syrian security forces have kept heavy weapons in cities in breach of a U.N.-brokered cessation of hostilities, but the government and opposition both have committed truce violations, a top U.N. official said Tuesday.

The 24 unarmed military observers now in Syria have seen Howitzer guns, armored personnel carriers and other weaponry in cities, U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told a press conference at U.N. headquarters.

Hizbullah on Tuesday condemned the two bombings that rocked the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib on Monday, saying they were “part of a destructive, subversive plot aimed at eradicating any chance to reach a solution that would rescue Syria from the current crisis.”

“These bombings that sowed death and destruction in a peaceful Syrian city seeking security and stability cannot be the work of a political opposition that wants the welfare of the country and its citizens, but rather criminal bombings aimed at undermining stability and raising tensions in the framework of implementing the conspiracy that is targeting Syria and the region,” the party said in a statement.

Ten civilians killed by regime mortar fire and 12 troops died in clashes with rebels were among 26 dead in Syria on Tuesday just hours after a new U.N. call for all sides to respect a troubled truce.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said it was vital that government and opposition alike cooperate fully with a hard-won U.N. observer force as it fans out in its mission to shore up the ceasefire agreement that took effect on April 12.

A senior official in the Free Syrian Army denied that the army has any links to the ship that was intercepted by the Lebanese navy on Friday on suspicion that it was smuggling arms to Syria, reported the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat on Tuesday.

The unnamed officer instead blamed the Syrian regime for being behind the ship.

The March-14 led opposition criticized on Tuesday the meetings of the follow-up committee and the Joint Economic Committee between Lebanon and Iran, al-Liwaa newspaper reported.

A senior opposition source said that the meetings “embarrass” the cabinet in the Arab world, regionally and internationally.