The new United Nations envoy on the Syria conflict, Staffan de Mistura, is to make his first trip to Damascus on Tuesday, Syrian media reported.

De Mistura will hold three days of talks on the "prospects for a solution" to the conflict that has ravaged Syria since March 2011, the Al-Watan newapaper, which is close to the government, reported on Monday.

Armed men from al-Masri family reportedly kidnapped several residents from the northeastern border town of Arsal, media reports said on Monday.

According to al-Jadeed TV, the alleged gunmen abducted Abdullah al-Breidi and Hussein al-Fleiti to press the release of soldier Ali Zeid al-Masri, who was held captive, along with other soldiers and policemen, by Islamist militants.

Islamic State fighters appear to be using captured U.S. military issue arms and weapons supplied to moderate rebels in Syria by Saudi Arabia, according to a report published on Monday.

The study by the London-based small-arms research organization Conflict Armament Research documented weapons seized by Kurdish forces from militants in Iraq and Syria over a 10-day period in July.

The jihadist militants who have seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria are intent upon creating "a house of blood", the U.N.'s new human rights chief said Monday.

In his maiden address to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein lashed out at the militant group calling itself the Islamic State, which has carved out a stronghold and declared a "caliphate" in an area straddling the border of the two conflict-torn nations.

Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas stressed that the government will not take “arbitrary measures” against Syrian refugees in Lebanon, reported the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat on Monday.

He told the daily: “We will not deport the refugees, but the residency of Syrians who do not fit the refugee status will be reconsidered.”

Lebanon received an invitation to attend a conference hosted by Saudi Arabia to discuss the pressing regional developments, including the growing threats by takfiris in the Arab world.

According to An Nahar newspaper published on Monday, the meeting follows a NATO summit, which was held on Friday in Wales, and will focus on ways to safeguard the country from extremism.

Progressive Socialist Party Leader MP Walid Jumblat expressed relief on Monday over the local situation, saying that the country will not slip into sedition.

“The soldiers are subjected to various threats while carrying out their duty,” Jumblat said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

Revelations that the suspected gunman in the deadly shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels had also served as a captor and torturer in Syria shows Europe's vulnerability to terror attacks, experts say.

Mehdi Nemmouche, who was extradited to Belgium over the May 24 shooting which killed four people, was identified this weekend by a French journalist as being among his Islamic extremist captors in Syria.

Arab states agreed on Sunday to take the "necessary measures" to confront Islamic State militants, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said, after a meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo.

"The Arab foreign ministers have agreed to take the necessary measures to confront terrorist groups including" IS, said Arabi at a news conference, without explicitly supporting U.S. calls for a coalition to back its air campaign against the militants in Iraq.

Saudi Arabia's top cleric has urged Muslims to confront the "oppressive" Islamic State jihadist group if it fights Muslims after seizing swathes of Iraq and Syria, media reports said Sunday.

"This group is aggressive and oppressive. It sheds blood," Al-Eqtisadiah daily quoted Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh as saying.