Negotiations to free Hussein Jaafar, who was kidnapped over the weekend, stumbled after media reports said that a hostage swap took place between the Jaafar clan and the residents of the eastern Bekaa town of Arsal.

The former mayor of Arsal, Basel al-Hujairi, denied in comments to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) on Tuesday that Jaafar was released.

The rebel Free Syrian Army is fighting government troops with Iranian-made Hizbullah weapons that were smuggled out of the party's depots in northern and eastern Lebanon, Lebanese security sources said.

The sources told the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah newspaper published Tuesday that several Hizbullah members that guard the party's depots in the North and the eastern Bekaa valley have been lately arrested for looting the hidden weapons and ammunition and selling them to the FSA.

The resignation of the "courageous" chief of Syria's opposition is regrettable but will not affect the U.S. government's support for the rebels, officials said Monday.

Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib's abrupt decision to step down from the National Coalition has underscored divisions among the opposition, but U.S. officials said Washington would not withdraw its backing for the group.

Rebels fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime on Monday sealed off the country's only two border posts with Jordan, a military official said.

"The Free Syrian Army closed the two crossings of Daraa and Naseeb from their side after they took control of them," the Jordanian official told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

The rebel Free Syria Army announced on Monday that it believes Hizbullah and Iran might have been involved in the assassination attempt of FSA Commander Riad al-Asaad in eastern Syria.

"I do not think the opposition has any role in the attack on al-Asaad but there are other undercover parties that might have been involved,” FSA Joint Command spokesman Fahd al-Masri told radio Voice of Lebanon (100.5).

The United Nations is removing about half of the 100 international staffers it has in Syria as attacks edge closer to U.N. buildings, a spokesman said Monday.

Mortar shells have fallen on the Damascus hotel used by U.N. workers, according to U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky, who blamed worsening security conditions for the decision to evacuate staff.

Damascus on Monday slammed the Arab League over its decision to hand Syria's seat at the organization to opposition forces, saying it had rewarded "bandits" and "thugs".

"The League has handed Syria's stolen seat to bandits and thugs, to the (opposition) Coalition which thinks it can sit in the name of the Syrian people," the official al-Thawra newspaper said.

Ravaged by months of intense war between rebels and regime troops, residents of Aleppo, Syria's once-thriving commercial hub, are selling off their personal belongings in order to survive.

Abu Ahmed, whose family sought shelter in Aleppo from devastated Baba Amr district in the central city of Homs, is trying to dispense with the most valuable possession he was able to rescue from his home -- an air conditioner.

Syria's resigned opposition chief Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib said he would make a speech "in the name of the Syrian people" at the Arab summit in Doha, in a statement on Facebook.

"After performing (morning prayers) and consulting many trustworthy figures among them (the opposition's envoy in Qatar) Nizar al-Haraki, I have decided to make a speech in the name of the Syrian people at the Doha summit," Khatib said in a statement on his Facebook page.

The Saudi Interior Ministry warned on Monday that Saudis fighting in Syria will be arrested when they return home.

Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, the ministry's spokesman, said: "Involvement in the Syrian crisis is against Saudi laws."