New York-based United Against Nuclear Iran, or UANI, is pushing for the U.S. Treasury Department to designate Lebanon's financial system as a "money-laundering concern" under a statute of the Patriot Act, the Wall Street Journal reported.

But the Journal said that while the Treasury is focused on weakening the finances of Hizbullah and its main backers Iran and Syria, there is also a concern that Washington's allies in Lebanon could be harmed if Beirut's financial position deteriorates.

Dozens of Syrian soldiers including top officers, defected to neighboring Turkey on Monday, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The 85 soldiers who fled include one general and other senior officials, the agency said, citing local officials.

Exiled opposition groups tried to forge a common vision for a transition in Syria as they met Monday in Cairo while the U.N. human rights chief accused the regime and the opposition of "serious" violations.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay also charged that weapons supplied to both the government and opposition were escalating the conflict, telling reporters in New York that "further militarization" must be avoided.

Phalange Party denounced Monday the Syrian security forces’ infiltration of the northern region of Wadi Khaled, urging the parliament to summon the Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali to object such a violation.

After its weekly politburo meeting chaired by leader Amin Gemayel, the party issued a statement condemning the Syrian violation of the Lebanese territory, supporting MP Sami Gemayel’s suggestion “that the cabinet should summon the Syrian ambassador to protest this hostile action.”

Prime Minister Najib Miqati received on Monday a telephone call from French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who hoped that Lebanon would enjoy “complete stability”, especially in the South.

He told the premier: “France understands Lebanon’s policy of distancing itself from the Syrian crisis.”

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Monday called on the international community to enforce a political solution in Syria while reiterating there would be no military intervention.

"The right response to this crisis remains a political response. And a concerted response by the international community against a regime that has lost all humanity and all legitimacy,' Rassmusen told a news conference.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat said Monday that the Syrians will “crush the ruling gang” and claim victory over President Bashar al-Assad’s regime sooner or later, urging Russia and Iran to support the people not the government.

In his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine, Jumblat said that “Egypt witnessed a historical moment when elected President Mohammed Morsi took power to initiate a new era.”

Syria's main exiled opposition groups met in Cairo Monday to try to forge a common vision for a political transition in Syria after criticizing a blueprint agreed by the major powers last week in a compromise with China and Russia.

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi, who chaired the meeting attended by around 250 opposition figures, urged opposition groups "not to waste this opportunity" and to "unite."

More than 16,500 people have been killed in violence since an uprising against President Bashar Assad broke out in March last year, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday.

Deputy head of Hizbullah's Executive Council Sheikh Nabil Qaouq accused on Monday some sides of seeking to change Lebanon and Syria’s identity through their criticism of the resistance and its arms.

He said: “Their focus on the resistance’s arms at this point in time is aimed at diverting attention from their smuggling of weapons to Syria.”