European Union foreign ministers on Monday eased an oil embargo against Syria with the aim of helping rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's regime.

Under the deal, European firms seeking to import Syrian crude or invest in the energy sector would ask for authorization from their government, which in turn would confer with Syria's opposition National Coalition to secure its agreement.

A group of young men on Monday captured a man they suspected to be a Syrian intelligence agent in Tripoli and handed him over to Lebanese army intelligence, as reports said he was “tortured.”

A mob “beat up and tormented a Syrian man after they suspected that he belongs to the Syrian intelligence,” al-Jadeed television reported.

More than 100 people have been found dead in a town near the Syrian capital of Damascus after a five-day operation to retake the town by regime troops, a watchdog said on Monday.

"There are 101 martyrs who have been identified in Jdaidet al-Fadl, which was taken completely by the army on Sunday. The victims are 10 women, three children and 88 men, including 24 rebels," Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Agence France Presse.

Former Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam criticized President Michel Suleiman's positions on the Syrian crisis, saying that they are “hostile” towards the Syrian people, said various media reports Monday.

He added in an address to Suleiman: “Several Lebanese and Arab people do not question Suleiman's antagonistic stances against the Syrians and their revolt due to your loyalty to Syrian President Bashar Assad, who played a major role in your appointment as president.”

Influential Muslim cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi on Monday urged al-Nusra Front to stay loyal to the mainstream Syrian rebel army, describing its pledge of fealty to al-Qaida as dangerous.

"Al-Nusra Front, which has done very well in its jihad (holy war) against the tyrant regime of Damascus, should ... remain within the ranks of the Free (Syrian) Army, to maintain unity," the International Union of Muslim Scholars which he heads said in a statement.

Elite fighters from Hizbullah, a staunch ally of the Syrian regime, are leading the fight against rebels in the region of Qusayr in the central province of Homs, a watchdog said on Monday.

"It's Hizbullah that is leading the battle in Qusayr, with its elite forces," Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told Agence France Presse.

Human Rights Watch called Monday on both the Syrian regime and rebel forces to end "indiscriminate cross-border attacks" on areas in Lebanon, warning they violate international law.

Fire from the conflict in neighboring Syria has regularly spilled over into Lebanon, killing two people in the most recent incident on April 14. Both rebel forces and regime troops have reportedly been involved in such fire.

Iran wants Syria's embattled President Bashar Assad to stay on and contest the presidential election scheduled for next year, a visiting senior Iranian envoy said on Monday.

"We think the best scenario is for Mr. Assad to remain president of the republic until the summer of 2014," said Aladin Borujerdi, head of parliament's national security and foreign affairs commission.

The relatives of the abducted Lebanese pilgrims in Syria's Aazaz held a protest on Monday near Turkish airlines offices in al-Azarieh building in downtown Beirut, threatening to stage an open-ended sit-in near the Turkish embassy in Rabieh.

“We will go ahead with our sit-ins near the Turkish airlines offices and we will stage an open-ended sit-in near the Turkish embassy when the weather improves,” Adham Zogheib, the son of one of the kidnapped men, told Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).

Hizbullah official Sheikh Nabil Qaouq has said the party's fighters had a moral and nationalistic duty to protect Lebanese citizens from rebels in villages and towns on the Syrian-Lebanese border.

“What Hizbullah is doing regarding this issue is a nationalistic and moral duty in protecting the Lebanese in border villages,” Qaouq, who is the deputy head of the party's executive council, said.