Hizbullah MP Hassan Fadlallah on Sunday urged a “serious and responsible probe” into the killing of al-Jadeed cameraman Ali Shaaban on Monday by gunfire from the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon’s Wadi Khaled, as AMAL Movement MP Ali Bazzi warned against “creating another enemy on our border with Syria.”

Speaking at a ceremony commemorating Shaaban one week after he and two of his al-Jadeed colleagues came under heavy gunfire from Syria while filming a report on Lebanon’s northern border with Syria, Fadlallah said: “Ali practiced the profession of problems, which led him to that troubled area where he was supposed to audio-visually transmit the facts and events from a border witnessing a lot of ambiguity.”

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Iraq's policy of non-interference in Syria and opposition to arming either side is in the country's best interest, in an interview with Kurdish newspaper Awena.

Thousands of people have been killed in a crackdown by President Bashar Assad's regime on a 13-month uprising against his rule but Iraq has strongly opposed proposals from Gulf states, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, to arm rebel fighters.

Syrian forces killed four civilians on Sunday in shelling of rebel areas and clashed with gunmen, testing a shaky U.N.-backed ceasefire as international monitors prepared to arrive in the unrest-hit country.

Forces loyal to President Bashar Assad subjected the Khaldiyeh and Bayada neighborhoods of the flashpoint central city of Homs to their fiercest bombardment since the truce came into force at dawn on Thursday, monitors said.

Ex-Premier Saad Hariri slammed efforts to adopt a parliamentary elections law based on proportionality, saying the threat of Hizbullah’s arms closes the door to democratic competition.

In an interview published in al-Mustaqbal daily on Sunday, Hariri said: “Proportionality is a means for people or political movements that do not enjoy absolute majority in a certain region to be represented in parliament based on their proportional size.”

The U.N. Security Council on Saturday unanimously passed its first resolution on the Syria crisis, allowing an advance party of ceasefire monitors to go to the country on the brink of civil war.

U.N. Resolution 2042 approved the first 30 unarmed military monitors, who U.N. officials said could leave for Damascus within hours.

Germany said Saturday it was investigating the possible breaking of an arms embargo after a report claiming that a German ship had been carrying Iranian weapons bound for Syria.

The news weekly Der Spiegel reported Saturday on its website that a German shipping company stopped one of its vessels on the high seas after a tip-off from opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.

Russia on Saturday said the U.N. Security Council had "practically agreed" a resolution on sending an observer mission to Syria and called on all sides to strictly obey the Kofi Annan peace plan.

"The resolution on the deployment into Syria of a U.N. monitoring mission advance group has been practically agreed for adoption at the U.N. Security Council," the Foreign Ministry said.

The U.N. Security Council will vote Saturday on a Western-drafted resolution allowing a ceasefire observer mission in Syria even though Russia's support is in doubt.

The United States called for the vote after a second day of wrangling with Russia over security guarantees for the first 30 unarmed military monitors who U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan wants in Syria early next week.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea noted on Friday that weapons will not advance the position of Shiites in Lebanon.

He said: “Arms have never advanced one sect over another in Lebanon.”

Syrian forces killed six people and shelled rebel areas of Homs on Saturday ahead of a U.N. Security Council vote on a Western-drafted resolution that would send observers to monitor a shaky truce now in its third day.

Forces loyal to President Bashar Assad killed four civilians as they opened fire at a funeral procession of a demonstrator in Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.