Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun noted on Monday that Lebanon is influenced by all of the developments in the Middle East.

He said during an FPM conference: “Given the very high tensions in the region, we must calm the situation in Lebanon as much as possible in order to prevent an escalation.”

U.S. Ambassador Maura Connelly voiced concern on Monday over the cross-border shelling into northern Lebanon that left two Lebanese and one Syrian refugee dead.

Connelly “voiced U.S. government concern over recent reports of cross-border shelling into northern Lebanon and expressed her condolences for the deaths of Lebanese civilians,” the U.S. embassy said in a statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Syria needed dialogue between the regime and opposition rather than foreign intervention to ensure a lasting peace.

International envoy Kofi Annan said on Monday he had agreed with President Bashar Assad on a new political "approach" to end Syria's nearly 16-month-old conflict that he would put to the rebels.

Stepping up efforts to halt the carnage which monitors say has cost more than 17,000 lives, the U.N.-Arab League envoy then travelled to Iran, Syria's closest regional ally, in his quest to broker a solution.

Russia on Monday hosted a delegation led by top Syrian dissident Michel Kilo for talks as Moscow comes under growing pressure from the West to halt all support for the regime of Bashar Assad.

Kilo's visit to Moscow comes ahead of a similar trip later this week by the head of the opposition Syrian National Council in a rare flurry of diplomacy between Moscow and the Syrian opposition against Assad's regime.

Syria's army pounded besieged, rebel-held districts of Homs city as troops and rebels clashed across the country on Monday, a watchdog said, adding that 14 people were killed in violence.

"Regime troops continue to shell the Khaldiyeh, Jurat al-Shiah and the Old City neighborhoods of Homs," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

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.”

Senator John McCain accused President Barack Obama and his administration on Sunday of leading a "shameful and disgraceful" U.S. response to the bloodshed in Syria.

"The fact is, the United States has played no leadership role," the influential senator and former Republican presidential candidate told CBS television, referring to efforts to halt the brutal 16-month crackdown.

Iran's deputy foreign minister said on Sunday that forcing Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down and go into exile would be a "joke," warning an attack on his country would be "stupid" and "catastrophic."

"Iran supports Assad's reform plans and the talk about forcing him to go into exile is a joke," Hossein Amir Abdollahian told reporters in Amman, where he invited King Abdullah II to attend an August summit of Non-Aligned Movement.

The European Union's top diplomat lashed out at Syria on Sunday over its deadly rocket fire along the border that left two girls dead and 10 other people wounded in the northern Lebanese area of Wadi Khaled.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton's office released a statement saying she "strongly condemns the recent shelling of the Lebanese border area by Syrian artillery, causing several deaths and injuries."