Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Monday that those "speaking of strife are the ones behind it and preparing for it."

He stressed after meeting Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the Grand Serail the need to maintain the civil peace, emphasizing that the Special Tribunal for Lebanon is the "highest international legal authority."

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called Sunday for the establishment of a Lebanese committee to investigate the issue of false witnesses in the assassination of former PM Rafik Hariri.

"Let them set up a committee -- a parliamentary, judicial, security, or ministerial committee—and bring witnesses and Mohammed Siddiq … and ask them who provided them with the information," Nasrallah said via video link during a celebration in honor of Hizbullah martyrs at Shahed Institute in Beirut's southern suburbs.

Turkey has reportedly stepped in to limit tension in Lebanon at a time when the country is gearing itself up for the visits of four top Arab leaders – Saudi King Abdullah, Syrian President Bashar Assad, Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and the King of Bahrain, Sheikh Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa.

As Safir daily quoted informed sources as saying Monday that Turkey is holding regional and international consultations to diffuse the tension that erupted over the expected announcement of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon's findings next fall.

Speaker Nabih Berri has warned that a security agreement with France would not be adopted unless the Lebanese definition of terrorism was included in it.

"Lebanon defines terrorism differently than France. We believe Israel is the heart of terror and those who help it and support the occupation of Arab land … contribute to terrorism as well," Berri told An Nahar in remarks published Wednesday.

Lebanese troops carried out house raids following renewed shooting in Fanar Thursday morning, the state-run National News Agency said.

It said the crackle of machine gun fire was heard in Zoaiteriya neighborhood in the northern Metn area of Fanar.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has reportedly warned his Lebanese counterpart Michel Suleiman from the dangers of international pressure to demarcate the border between the two countries while expressing readiness to start demarcation at sea.

Well-informed sources told As Safir newspaper in remarks published Thursday that Suleiman stressed during talks with Assad in Damascus on Tuesday on the need to demarcate the Lebanese-Syrian border.

The EU's refusal to accept Turkey as a member swiftly has partly caused Ankara's foreign policy shift and the deterioration in its relations with Israel, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.

"The deterioration in the relationship between Turkey and Israel over the past year or so is a matter of concern," Gates told reporters in London.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led a chorus of defiant Iranian criticism of new U.N. sanctions imposed on the Islamic republic on Wednesday, saying they deserved to be "thrown in the trash bin."

"These resolutions are not worth a dime for the Iranian nation," he said.

Russia is freezing a contract to deliver S-300 air defense missiles to Iran after the adoption of the new UN sanctions against Tehran, a Russian source told the Interfax news agency on Thursday.

"It is compulsory to fulfill a decision by the U.N. Security Council and Russia is not an exception here," said the source in the Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation, which supervises Russian arms sales.

Israel's deadly raid on an aid flotilla for Gaza was a tragedy that demands detailed investigation and must not be repeated, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told Agence France Presse in an interview.

"What is especially tragic is that this act was carried out in neutral waters," the Russian prime minister said in a discussion late Monday in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi.