China said Friday it is sending an envoy to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and France to explain its position on Syria, after Beijing called for an end to the year-long conflict in the Middle East country.

China unveiled a six-point peace plan last Sunday, calling for an immediate end to the bloody violence and for dialogue between the regime of President Bashar Assad and the opposition.

Russia said Friday it opposed an "unbalanced" U.S.-backed U.N. draft resolution on the Syria crisis because it did not contain a call for a simultaneous halt in violence by the government and rebels.

"We cannot agree with the draft resolution in the form it is being presented in today. The text of the resolution under discussion is unbalanced," Interfax quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov as saying.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has slammed what he called the alleged “myth” that Syrian President Bashar Assad is a reformist, urging the Lebanese authorities not to hand over Syrian activists to the regime of the neighboring country.

Jumblat told An Nahar daily following talks with French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe in Paris on Thursday, that the minister is among the rare “westerners who didn’t believe the myth that Bashar Assad is a reformist.”

Syrian authorities demanded Lebanon officially on Friday to hand over the armed Syrian nationals that sought refuge in the eastern Bekaa area over the weekend, As Safir newspaper reported.

The Syrian Justice Ministry sent an official request to the Lebanese authorities demanding them to “hand over the armed groups that were detained in Lebanon,” informed sources told the daily.

Those who are demanding a facilitation of the crossing of gunmen from and into Syria have “made the wrong request and knocked on the wrong door,” Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji has said.

In an interview with Al-Afkar magazine to be published Friday, Qahwaji stressed that the army had boosted its deployment in the northern area of Wadi Khaled, which borders Syria, noting that “the military forces are exerting utmost efforts to control the border, prevent smuggling in both directions, and thwart any infiltration attempt.”

The Higher Defense Council on Thursday expressed “relief” over the security situation in the country and decided to keep its resolutions confidential, following an emergency meeting at the Baabda Palace that tackled the issue of the Lebanese-Syrian border and the influx of refugees and gunmen from Syria.

The council “was briefed by the heads of the security agencies about the results of the security missions performed in several Lebanese regions and the border areas, expressing relief over the general security situation,” council spokesman Maj. Gen. Adnan Merheb announced after the meeting.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stated on Thursday that Lebanon “knows how to assume its responsibilities.”

He said ahead of his official visit to Jordan: “The Lebanese state does not need to take orders from others on how to run its affairs.”

Turkish President Abdullah Gul indicated Thursday that France will be invited to the next meeting of the "Friends of Syria" to be held in Istanbul despite a slump in ties over a genocide bill.

A distinction must be made between bilateral relations and an international conference," Gul said on a visit to Tunisia, after a Turkish diplomat said Ankara had not decided whether to invite France to the conference.

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly lamented on Thursday the poor number of women in official state positions in Lebanon.

He said after holding talks with Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour: “Let us hope that the 2013 parliamentary elections will result in a stronger participation and bigger representation of women in the political field here in the future.”

A relief aid coordination meeting on strife-torn Syria opened Thursday in Geneva, with representatives from U.N. agencies, aid groups such as the Red Cross, and member states in attendance.

The closed-door conference chaired by the John Ging, coordination chief of U.N.'s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, would look at current needs and the possibilities of accessing the country, a spokesman said.