Lebanon's participation in a meeting between Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian lawmakers, ahead of a meeting for the International Parliamentary Union, is expected to create a dispute among the political arch-foes, al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Monday.

According to the daily, the preparatory meeting between the four countries on March 10 in the Iranian capital, Tehran, will become a point of contention locally as it would be representing a particular international axis that contradicts the dissociation policy that the Lebanese government had adopted.

A Tunisian man was arrested Sunday for trying to cross into Syria's Qalamoun from the Bekaa region, Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

“The Lebanese Army arrested Tunisian national Bassem bin Mohammed al-Silti while he was en route from Jib Janine to Arsal on his way to Qalamoun in Syria,” NNA said.

Firefights and shelling on Sunday shattered a weeks-old truce at the Yarmuk Palestinian camp in Damascus, but a ceasefire allowed residents to return to another besieged area near Syria's capital.

Syria's three-year conflict is estimated to have killed more than 140,000 people, forced millions to flee the homes, and taken a brutal toll on children increasingly threatened by disease.

Attacks in predominantly Sunni Arab areas north and west of Baghdad on Sunday killed six people, all members of the security forces, the latest in a year-long surge in bloodshed.

Less than two months before parliamentary elections, Iraq is mired in its worst violence since 2008, when it was emerging from a period of brutal sectarian bloodletting that killed tens of thousands of people.

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg appeared in court in London on Saturday charged with providing terrorist training and funding terrorism in Syria.

The 45-year-old from Birmingham in central England indicated he would plead not guilty to the charges and was remanded in custody until the next hearing on March 14.

President Michel Suleiman condemned on Saturday the latest shelling of Lebanese towns bordering Syria in the Bekaa region.

He said: “The shelling is an attempt to drag Lebanon towards the Syrian crisis.”

Saudi Arabia has hit back at Russian criticism of its reported plans to supply shoulder-launched missiles to Syrian rebels, saying it was Moscow's support for Damascus that was prolonging the conflict.

A spokesman told the official SPA news agency late Friday that the foreign ministry had been "astonished by Russian criticism of Saudi Arabia for its support of the Syrian people".

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hailed the formation of a new Lebanese government, hoping that it will pave the way for Lebanon to meet its constitutional deadlines.

He hoped that Lebanon will hold the presidential and parliamentary elections on time, as well as respect the Baabda Declaration.

Syrian activists Friday called for the brother of an opposition delegate to the Geneva peace talks to be released after he was snatched from a Damascus suburb by Syrian security services.

Mahmoud Sabra, the brother of Mohammed Sabra, was arrested on his way home in Jaramana on February 20 only days after the second round of peace talks aimed at bringing in a transitional government collapsed.

Robert Ford, the US ambassador to Syria who has been Washington's main pointman in efforts to end the war working with opposition leaders battling President Bashar aAssad, stepped down Friday.

"Robert Ford is retiring from the foreign service today after nearly 30 years of distinguished service," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.