Syrian President Bashar Assad urged on Saturday Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi against falling victim to misleading campaigns aimed at creating incitement against Syria, reported the official Syrian news agency SANA.

Al-Arabi affirmed that the Arab League and Arab countries are committed to Syria's security and stability, it added.

Syrian forces killed 16 people Saturday, activists said, as they tried to crush anti-regime dissent as Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi met President Bashar al-Assad to broker an end to the bloodshed.

Arabi carried a 13-point document outlining Arab proposals to halt the deadly crackdown, hold elections and push for reforms in the League member state.

The Lebanese army thwarted on Saturday an attempt to smuggle tasers and individual communication devices to Syria through an illegal border crossing at Deir al-Ashaer in the Rashayya region.

The National News Agency reported that the army halted a pickup truck loaded with equipment as it was attempting to enter Syria.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s recent position on Syria has created further divisions between the March 14 camp and Jamaa Islamiya on the one hand, and the March 8 camp on the other.

The daily Al-Liwaa reported on Saturday that academic, political, and cultural Christian figures have agreed to hold a conference, under the preliminary title of “Christians and the Arab Spring,” to produce a number of principles on Christians’ positions on the upcoming phase in the Arab world.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy informed Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi during his visit to France earlier this week that the “regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad is over,” reported An Nahar daily on Saturday.

The patriarch received assurances from various French officials that “Lebanon and Christians minorities will not be sacrificed” for regional interests.

A number of March 14 MPs and officials on Friday criticized the latest stances voiced by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi about the Syrian crisis and Hizbullah’s arms.

“To give or not to give Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a chance is something to be decided by the Syrian people, not anyone else,” Lebanese Forces bloc MP Antoine Zahra told MTV.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran is ready to host a meeting of Islamic nations to help its ally Syria solve its political crisis, in remarks posted on his website Friday.

"Iran is ready to host a meeting of Islamic countries to reach a collective understanding in order to help Syria," the website quoted Ahmadinejad telling a group of Kuwaiti journalists.

Lebanon’s branch of the Jamaa Islamiya on Friday criticized Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s latest stances on the Syrian crisis.

“Any person has the right to express his stances and viewpoints, but we were not expecting such a stance from His Eminence, especially that he deduced that any change achieved by the Syrian people would have negative repercussions on the ties among the Lebanese communities,” the Jamaa Islamiya said in a statement.

Turkish Prime Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivered a blistering attack on the Syrian regime, saying President Bashar Assad had lost his legitimacy and could lose power over his bloody crackdown on dissent.

Syria's crackdown has infuriated world powers, some of which imposed sanctions on the Damascus regime, with fresh pressure piled on Assad from neighboring Turkey.

Syria's opposition leaders said they expected more support from Russia on Friday after President Dmitry Medvedev accused some of those protesting against Bashar Assad of being "terrorists".

The Russian upper house of parliament's foreign affairs chief Mikhail Margelov met a visiting Syrian delegation that included National Organization for Human Rights in Syria head Ammar Qurabi.