The advisor of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu reiterated that 11 Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Syria last month haven’t crossed the border to Turkey.

In remarks to An Nahar newspaper published Saturday, the advisor said: “Turkey has nothing to do with the issue and the kidnapping didn’t take place on our territories.”

The Turkish Parliament voted Friday to extend its troops' mission in Lebanon under U.N. peacekeeping mission UNIFIL by one year.

The extension is the sixth since Turkey initially approved the mission in September 2006. It takes effect from September this year.

Turkey is to pick a new long-range air defense missile system soon, as tension builds with neighboring Syria, media and foreign diplomats said Friday.

Companies vying for the four billion dollar (3.2 billion euro) contract include Raytheon and Lockheed Martin of the United States, Rosoboronexport of Russia, CPMIEC of China and the French-Italian consortium, Eurosam, they said.

An explosion targeting a pipeline in eastern Turkey has cut off Iranian natural gas shipments to the country, Anatolia news agency reported on Thursday citing sources from the energy ministry.

The blast occurred at 2300 GMT Wednesday in an area between villages of Hidirli and Kalender in the eastern province of Agri, said Anatolia.

The former chief of the main opposition Syrian National Council, Burhan Ghalioun visited Beirut during the past two days “on a secret visit”, revealed al-Jadeed television on Thursday.

It said that he held talks with a number of Lebanese officials away from the media spotlight.

Turkey is sending missile batteries and army vehicles to the border with Syria as a "security corridor,” almost a week after the Syrian downing of a Turkish military jet, media reports said Thursday.

There was no official confirmation of the reported military moves.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Turkey has no intention of attacking Syria over its recent downing of a fighter jet.

"As Turkey, the Turkish nation, we have no intention of attacking" Syria, Erdogan said during a military ceremony in Ankara.

Four Turkish soldiers were killed Wednesday in a clash with Kurdish rebels fighting for autonomy in the country's southeast, a local security source said.

Three soldiers died in an early-morning ambush by members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Eruh town in Siirt province, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) from the Iraqi border.

Turkey will sign Tuesday a deal with neighboring Azerbaijan on building the $7 billion Trans-Anatolian natural gas pipeline (TANAP) to carry Azeri gas to European markets, its prime minister said.

This project is about transferring the natural gas extracted from the second phase of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field to Europe, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a parliamentary address.

Cyprus, which on July 1 will assume the rotating presidency of the European Union, is ready with its European partners to evacuate third party nationals from Syria, the foreign minister said.

"We are only 100 kilometer from the shores of Syria and Lebanon. Anything that goes wrong there will affect us," Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis said in an interview with Agence France Presse.