The U.N. Security Council and U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday hit out at the killing of the U.S. ambassador in Libya as "unjustifiable."

The 15-nation council put aside divisions over the NATO military action in Libya and the Syria conflict to agree on a statement condemning the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi "in the strongest terms."

The U.N. Security Council on Thursday warned against attempts to destabilize Lebanon as it renewed the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping force in the country for another year.

The renewal of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon came amid mounting concerns about the impact of the 17-month-old war in Syria on its neighbor.

ran has doubled its capacity at a tough-to-bomb nuclear facility, a U.N. atomic agency report showed Thursday, as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran that his country "is never seeking nuclear weapons."

The International Atomic Energy Agency also said that its ability to inspect the Parchin military base where it suspects nuclear weapons research took place in the past had been "significantly hampered" by a suspected clean-up.

Lebanon is set to chair the Arab League Ministerial Council next month amid unannounced divisions among top Lebanese officials on whether to back down from the mission, As Safir daily reported on Tuesday.

Presidential sources told the newspaper that pragmatic consultations are underway on whether Lebanon should preside the Council for a six-month period starting September 5.

The U.N. Security Council urged Mali's military Friday to return to barracks and refrain from "any interference" in politics during the transition to civilian rule.

The 15-member body also said it was awaiting clarification on a possible peacekeeping operation by the regional ECOWAS group to help Bamako wrest the north back from hardline Islamist rebels.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour shrugged off criticism over Lebanon’s failure to file a complaint with the U.N. on the latest deaths of Lebanese in a cross-border attack in the northern area of Wadi Khaled, saying the Syrian shelling was not intentional.

In remarks to al-Joumhouria daily published Monday and Tele Liban the day before, Mansour expressed regret at the death of two Lebanese in the shelling that took place over the weekend but said “such clashes do take place on the border of any country due to unintentional mistakes.”

International envoy Kofi Annan acknowledged the failure so far of his mission to bring peace to Syria.

In comments published in French by the Le Monde newspaper, Annan was quoted as saying that significant efforts had been made to try to resolve the crisis peacefully and politically.

The U.N. said on Tuesday it had not yet received confirmation of a key Syria meeting expected to take place at its Geneva headquarters on Saturday.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s Trial Chamber held a hearing on Wednesday on defense motions challenging the jurisdiction of the court.

The defense teams for the four Hizbullah members indicted in the 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri filed the separate motions last month although their arguments overlap.

Eight civilians died in southwestern Ivory Coast in the attack that killed seven U.N. peacekeepers, the United Nations said on Saturday.

"As per our information, at least eight civilians were killed, including a woman," Anouk Desgroseilliers, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told Agence France Presse.