Syria on Thursday accused "armed terrorist groups," which it blames for the unrest sweeping the country, of committing more than 1,300 violations of a truce that came into force on April 12.

"Armed terrorist groups have intensified (the number of) massacres, explosions and acts of aggression, committing more than 1,300 violations since the ceasefire came into force on April 12," Adnan Mahmoud told Agence France Presse.

Russia accused the Syrian rebels on Thursday of waging a wide-scale terror campaign that is designed to kill as many civilians as possible despite a formal ceasefire.

"Opposition groups have essentially reverted to waging wide-scale terror in the region," said foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri noted on Thursday that the living conditions in Lebanon have greatly deteriorated in the past year, blaming the current government for the poor situation in the country.

He said via Twitter: “The 2013 parliamentary elections will surely change” this reality.

Syria's main opposition group on Thursday called for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting as it accused regime forces of killing more than 100 people in the central city of Hama in recent days.

"We are calling for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council so that it can issue a resolution to protect civilians in Syria," the Syrian National Council said in a statement.

Speaker Nabih Berri warned on Thursday against the ambush set for regional countries, saying that their economic and political powers are being scattered.

“Division is increasing (among the regional countries) and they’re turning into nations governed by the power of arms,” Berri said at the opening of the Languages Faculty at St. Joseph University (USJ).

Syrian government troops pressed a campaign to crush regime opponents in several areas on Thursday, activists said.

Two weeks into the truce, at least two people were killed in the town of Maree, near the northern city of Aleppo, and one man died in the village of Mohsen, northeastern Deir Ezzor province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Saudi ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awadh Asiri hailed efforts exerted by Lebanese officials to detain two members of an “Arab gang” that abducted two Saudi nationals on the outskirts of Beirut, the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat reported.

Asiri confirmed that the two Saudi nationals Tawfiq and Abdullah al-Shaqaqeen were kidnapped and tortured for eight days and are currently receiving medical treatment at the American University of Beirut Medical Center.

Western security sources warned that the situation in Lebanon is “very delicate” as they fear that it would turn into a conflict arena between international and regional powers, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Thursday.

“Suspected extremist groups could be plotting attacks in Lebanon on foreign interests that are playing a critical role in the Syrian crisis,” the report said.

The United Nations on Friday will name Major General Robert Mood to head the Syria ceasefire observer mission that is struggling to get monitors into the country, diplomats said.

U.N. member states have so far offered only 100 military officers for the unarmed force given the risky mission of checking a cessation of hostilities that has barely held in Syria since April 12. A total of 300 observers has been proposed, accompanied by about 90 civilian support staff and experts.

Detained Syrian human rights activist and journalist Mazen Darwish is suffering from a "worsening health condition," the Syrian Journalists Union said in a statement on Wednesday.

Darwish, who heads the Syrian Center for Media Freedom and Expression, has been held in solitary confinement by Air Force intelligence since his detention on February 16, the statement added.