Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov reportedly had a stormy meeting with Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah last month.

The Saudi al-Watan daily on Sunday quoted sources as saying that during his talks with Nasrallah, Bogdanov proposed the possibility of naming a new Syrian president to lead a transitional government.

Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas has said new regulations to impose visa restrictions on Syrians are aimed at differentiating between refugees and visitors.

The authorities are compelled to “organize the entry and exit of Syrians as part of the implementation of the new security strategy,” Derbas told pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat in remarks published on Sunday.

The second round of dialogue between Hizbullah and al-Mustaqbal movement is scheduled to be held in Ain el-Tineh on Monday to discuss ways to limit Sunni-Shiite tension, political sources said.

The sources told An Nahar daily published on Sunday that the representatives of the two parties will assess the results of the first meeting that was held between them under the auspices of Speaker Nabih Berri last month.

The al-Qaida-affiliated al-Nusra Front has attacked posts controlled by Hizbullah and the Syrian Army in the town of Fleita in the Syrian Qalamun region on Saturday, killing five Hizbullah members and several Syrian soldiers while sustaining six deaths.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Saturday that “fierce clashes are ongoing since early morning between Hizbullah and the Syrian Army on one side and al-Nusra Front on the other in Qalamun's Flita outskirts.”

Syria's ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali expressed understanding to the measures taken by the Lebanese state to organize the movement of Syrians into and out of Lebanon, calling for further cooperation.

“The measures are to organize the operation due to the high pressure imposed by the policies adopted and the conditions in Lebanon,” Ali told reporters after talks with former Prime Minister Salim el-Hoss at his residence in Beirut's Aisha Bakkar.

Lebanon is to impose visa restrictions on Syrians for the first time after being overwhelmed by an influx of more than 1.1 million refugees, according to documents published online.

The new regulations, posted on the website of the General Security agency, come into effect on January 5 and lay out various categories, including for tourism and medical treatment.

At least 19 people were killed overnight by Syrian rebel fire on government-controlled parts of the northern city of Aleppo, a monitor said on Friday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the dead included at least five children, three of whom were killed with their mother when a rocket hit the car they were in.

U.S.-led coalition warplanes carried out more than a dozen airstrikes overnight in and around the Islamic State group's de facto capital in northeastern Syria, three activist groups said Friday.

The air raids on the outskirts of Raqqa were the heaviest coalition strikes on the city along the Euphrates River since Islamic State group militants captured a Jordanian pilot after his F-16 jet went down near the city on Dec. 24.

Top U.S. diplomat John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov spoke Thursday to discuss the crises in the Middle East and Ukraine, officials said.

"Secretary Kerry and Foreign Minister Lavrov spoke by phone today. They discussed the situation in the Middle East and Ukraine," according to a senior State Department official. 

Two women identifying themselves as Italian aid workers kidnapped in Syria have appeared in a video urging their government to seek their release.

The video, filmed in mid-December, appeared online Wednesday night and purportedly shows Vanessa Marzullo and Greta Ramelli, who were abducted by gunmen in northern Aleppo province in August.