France and Germany said Tuesday that a new Russian draft resolution at the U.N. Security Council on the Syrian crisis was inadequate, as Britain said it was unlikely Russia would let the U.N. body take any serious action.

It was "very far from responding to the reality of the situation in Syria", where President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on protests has left thousands of people dead, French foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said.

The Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday lauded the cabinet’s decision to compensate the families of the victims of Sunday’s building collapse in Beirut’s Ashrafiyeh district, urging the government to “quickly compensate the families of the martyrs of the Wadi Khaled and Arsal regions.”

In December, three Lebanese citizens were killed in the northern border region of Wadi Khaled by gunfire coming from across the border with Syria.

Prominent opposition figure and rights activist Najati Tayyara, arrested last May for having criticized President Bashar al-Assad's regime, was released on Tuesday, a rights group said.

"The Syrian authorities have just released him and his lawyer has just spoken to him on the telephone," said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly held talks on Tuesday with Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun on the political and security situation in Lebanon and the current situation in Syria.

She stressed after the meeting “U.S. concerns that developments in Syria not contribute to instability in Lebanon.”

Israel has serious concerns about what will happen to "huge stockpiles" of chemical and biological weapons in Syria when the Assad regime collapses, a senior military official said on Tuesday.

Major-General Amir Eshel, head of the Israeli military's planning division, said the working assumption was the regime of President Bashar Assad would eventually fall.

Syria's government on Tuesday rejected the possibility of the Arab League deploying troops in the unrest-swept country as suggested by the emir of Qatar and said its people would confront such action.

"Syria rejects the statements of officials of Qatar on sending Arab troops to worsen the crisis... and pave the way for foreign intervention," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

At least 32 people were killed in Syria on Tuesday, including four army deserters, as a blast killed eight civilians in the northwestern province of Idlib, activists and a human rights group said.

"Eight civilians were killed by a device that exploded as their minibus passed on the road between Idlib and Aleppo," in the north, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, without specifying the identity of the assailants.

President Michel Suleiman vowed on Tuesday to resume the National Dialogue and said the success of the Arab initiative to resolve the Syrian crisis falls in Lebanon’s interest.

“I will continue to exert efforts to guarantee all the necessary conditions to resume dialogue between all parties to preserve the safety of the Lebanese” and achieve a national defense strategy, Suleiman told the diplomatic corps that was in Baabda palace for a protocol visit on the occasion of the New Year.

Iran on Tuesday denied an allegation from France that it was sending weapons to its ally Syria in violation of a U.N. embargo.

"The declarations from French officials are incorrect," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters in a regular weekly briefing.

Phalange party leader Amin Gemayel confirmed on Tuesday that he disagreed with his allies in the March 14 forces on the situation in Syria, saying Lebanon had no interest in shoving itself in the internal affairs of the neighboring country.

In an interview with As Safir newspaper, Gemayel said: “We have differences on how to deal with the Syrian issue and this is no secret.”