Lebanon Now MP Oqab Saqr has accused Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun of relying on militias on the street to achieve his political objectives.

Saqr told the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah daily in an interview published on Friday that Aoun’s latest statements were “very dangerous.” They give an impression that Premier-designate Najib Miqati is his “employee.”

Lebanese army officers who were on training programs in Syria have returned to Lebanon upon the request of the Syrian authorities, al-Liwaa daily reported on Friday.

The newspaper said several agreements signed between the Lebanese and Syrian armies stress on the exchange of expertise and attending training courses.

Syrian troops arrested 300 people in a Damascus suburb on Thursday even as they pulled back from the protest hub of Daraa after a military lockdown of more than a week.

Activists, meanwhile, vowed a "Day of Defiance" on Friday to press a seven-week-old anti-regime campaign in which 607 people have been killed, according to human rights groups, while 8,000 people have been jailed or gone missing.

The United States and Italy called for an immediate end to the crackdown in Syria on Thursday and warned about the rising influence of Iran amid the multiple crises shaking the Arab world, Agence France Presse reported.

"The Syrian government must immediately stop the violence and resume a path of dialogue with those who want reform," Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said at a joint news conference with Clinton in Rome.

Syrian President Bashar Assad ruled out the possibility that Iran would use an atomic bomb against Israel because that would lead to Palestinian casualties, revealed a leaked U.S. Embassy cable published exclusively in al-Jumhuriya newspaper on Thursday.

The WikiLeaks cable dated April 1, 2009, spoke of a meeting between the Syrian president and then U.S. Senator Arlen Specter.

Phalange Party leader Amin Gemayel feared that Hizbullah’s takeover of Beirut on May 7, 2008, may be the end stages of a Syrian-Iranian operation to seize control of Lebanon, revealed a leaked U.S. Embassy cable dated May 11, 2008.

The WikiLeaks cable spoke of a meeting between Gemayel, then U.S. Charge d’Affaires Michele Sison, and then ministers Nayla Mouawwad and Marwan Hamadeh.

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun stressed on Wednesday that Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati should respect the decisions of the majority that appointed him.

He said in an interview to OTV: “Members who don’t have a political presence in parliament should not take part in government.”

France urged its citizens living in or visiting Syria to leave Wednesday and warned others to cancel any plans to visit during the current political crisis, the foreign ministry said.

"While foreign citizens are not so far directly threatened, the French authorities renew their advice to delay all plans to travel to Syria," the ministry said in advice to travelers on its website.

EU sanctions being drawn up against Syria over its bloody crackdown on protests should target its president, Bashar al-Assad, France's foreign minister said Tuesday.

Asked whether France wanted Assad to be specifically named in the measures being discussed in Brussels, Alain Juppe told reporters: "France wishes so."

Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun has described several parties in Lebanon as corrupt “mercenaries” who are after power and have no credibility.

Aoun said in a WikiLeaks cable from Paris dated May 4, 2005 that his only ambition behind his return to Lebanon from a 15-year banishment to France was to bring back democracy to the country.