Iran on Friday voted for a new parliament in the first nationwide elections since a bitterly contested 2009 poll that returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power, posing a new test of his support among conservatives.

The elections, to fill the 290 seats in parliament, were being boycotted by Iran's main opposition and reformist groups, the leaders of which have been under house arrest for the past year.

Speaker Nabih Berri requested on Thursday that Cyprus support the proposal that the United Nations demarcate Lebanon’s maritime border and exclusive economic zone.

He said: “We appreciate Cyprus’ understanding of our fears that Israel may exploit its agreements with Cyprus in order to violate Lebanon’s petroleum wealth and increase its violations of the country’s sovereignty.”

Israel's deputy foreign minister on Thursday said that a North Korean pledge to suspend nuclear tests in exchange for U.S. aid should not be seen as a model for dealing with Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"The two cases are completely dissimilar," Danny Ayalon told Israeli public radio, hours before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to leave for talks in Washington with U.S. President Barack Obama, expected to center on Israeli concerns that Tehran is racing to produce nuclear arms.

Underneath the plaza outside Israel's Habima national theater, Israel has put the finishing touches on a new gathering place that it hopes will never host a crowd: the country's most advanced public underground bomb shelter.

The shelter, four stories underground and with space for 1,600 people, is usually a parking lot. It is also part of Tel Aviv's elaborate civil defense infrastructure. City officials have been beefing up shelters and emergency services in recent months at a time of rising tensions with Iran and militant groups in the Gaza Strip.

The cabinet is expected to tackle during its session next week a decree set to organize the country’s natural resources sector, and swiftly appoint the members of the committee tasked with administrating the oil sector.

“For the first time in history we have studies that estimate the quantities (of oil wealth in our offshores), and they are huge… They are enough to secure the future of the coming generations,” Energy Minister Jebran Bassil told As Safir newspaper on Thursday.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon expressed concern over the repercussions of the Syrian crisis on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701 but hailed the Lebanese government’s efforts to ward off the impact of the upheaval in the neighboring country.

In his latest report on the implementation of resolution 1701, Ban said the Syrian regime’s crackdown on protestors has continued to affect Lebanon, and raised concerns that the unrest could have negative ramifications for the country’s stability.

The White House warned Wednesday that any military action against Iran would create "greater instability" that could threaten the safety of Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The warning came days before a planned March 5 meeting between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday said Lebanon had concerns Israel might deny it “its right to more than 850 nautical square kilometers” in maritime resources, stressing that “the problem is not between Lebanon and Cyprus, but rather between Lebanon and Israel.”

During a joint press conference with his Cypriot counterpart Yiannakis Omirou in Cyprus, where he arrived Wednesday on an official visit, Berri said “the U.N. has recently become convinced that it has to intervene in order to resolve this issue,” referring to the disputed oil and gas resources.

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel blamed on Wednesday Israel for the ongoing state of instability in the Middle East.

He said: “Israel’s rejection of peace is contributing to the emergence of extremists in the region.”

The Palestinian leadership on Tuesday called on the U.N. Security Council to visit the occupied territories to see the impact of Israel's settlement campaign.

The Palestinian U.N. envoy, Riyad Mansour, made the request as U.N. under secretary general for political affairs, B. Lynne Pascoe, told the Security Council that events in Gaza and the West Bank are "dangerous and ultimately unsustainable."