Syria's government has adopted a draft law authorizing multipartism in a move that could allow for a change in power in the Arab country ruled for decades by the Baath party, a report said Monday.

The law was adopted by the government during the night, the official SANA news agency reported.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has replaced the governor of Deir Ezzor, the state news agency SANA reported on Sunday two days after massive anti-regime protests in the eastern oil hub.

Assad issued a decree appointing Samir Othman al-Sheikh to replace Hussein Arnoos as governor, the agency said.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat warned on Sunday of attempts to create disputes between Lebanese and Syrians in light of the anti-regime protests in Syria.

He said while on tour in Rashayya: “Syria can only be cured through the punishment of those who committed the crimes against the Syrian people.”

Riyadh has informed Prime Minister Najib Miqati that he is not welcome in Saudi Arabia, revealed opposition sources to the daily Ad Diyar on Sunday.

They added that Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat was charged with relaying this message to the premier.

One of the seven Estonian cyclists who was freed from captivity some ten days ago, Jaan Jagomagi revealed that their kidnappers were Sunni Muslims from Iraq who abducted them for ransom in order to gain money for political purposes, he told Agence France Presse.

He said that the captives talked with their eighth abductors in English, adding that two of them were wearing explosive belts.

Israel has issued a complaint to the United Nations over U.N. Special Coordinator of Lebanon Michael Williams’ recent report on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701, reported the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat on Sunday.

It deemed the report as being “lenient” with Hizbullah, while U.N. circles said that Israel was “upset with Williams for a number of reasons, most notably the fact that he failed to mention resolution 1559 at Hizbullah’s request.”

Syrian security forces on Saturday arrested several civilians, including women, in the flashpoint central city of Homs where gunfire was also heard, activists told Agence France Presse.

"Gunshots were heard in al-Khalidiyeh neighborhood and security forces have been making arrests," Abdel Karim Rihawi, the head of the Syrian League for the Defense of Human Rights, said by telephone.

U.N. special advisers on human rights have said that violations reportedly committed by security forces in Syria may qualify as crimes against humanity.

Francis Deng, the special adviser to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the prevention of genocide and Edward Luck, the special adviser on the responsibility to protect, said Friday that Syrian security forces have reportedly continued to kill civilians and make arbitrary arrests.

Eight civilians were killed on Friday when Syrian security forces and regime agents used violence to disperse anti-regime demonstrators, as more than 1.2 million protesters flooded streets in the northern city of Hama and Deir Ezzor in the east, activists said.

"More than 1.2 million people marched: in Deir Ezzor there were more than 550,000, and in Hama more than 650,000," Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding the security forces were notable by their absence during the protests.

France on Friday roundly condemned the latest clampdown on Syrian dissidents in the city of Homs where pro-regime gunmen have killed dozens, saying the army should protect rather than "sow terror."

"France condemns with the most extreme firmness the continued repression carried out by the Syrian authorities which continue, in a headlong rush to nowhere, to daily arrest and kill their own people," foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told journalists.