Caretaker Premier Saad Hariri reiterated that he rejects to become a partner with Hizbullah’s arms that have allegedly turned against the Lebanese.

“Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and I preserved the resistance,” Saad Hariri told An Nahar daily in an interview published Friday but said he would no longer defend it “after it put arms in the face of the Lebanese.”

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams revealed on Thursday that the international organization is currently studying the best way to assist Lebanon in drilling for petroleum in the Mediterranean and demarcating its maritime border.

He made his statements after holding talks with Caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil on the political situation in Lebanon and the economic challenges facing it, as well as the government formation process.

Frederick Hof, the assistant of U.S. Special Envoy for the Middle East George Mitchell, visited Damascus lately and discussed with Syrian officials the Syrian-Israeli peace track, An-Nahar reported Wednesday.

Israel's defense minister said Monday that his country would be ready to talk peace with Syria if Damascus was serious about doing so — a sharp departure from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's go-slow approach to peacemaking while the Middle East is in turmoil.

Iran's navy chief, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayari, has said that Tehran's dispatch of two warships to the Mediterranean last week was not aggressive in aim.

"The Iranian strategy is to reinforce its defensive capacities. We do not harbor aggressive intentions against other countries," Sayari said at a press conference in Damascus on Monday.

Israel's defense minister said Monday his country must look beyond the risks that might arise from the changes sweeping the Mideast and seek opportunities to move peacemaking forward — including possible peace talks with Syria.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israel Radio that Syria appears to be signaling it might be willing to reach an accord.

Israel has expressed concern over Russia’s decision to fulfill its contract to supply Syria with cruise missiles, saying they could end up in the hands of Hizbullah.

"The question of these missiles' delivery to Syria really has triggered a negative reaction in Israel," the Israeli ambassador to Moscow, Dorit Golender, told the Interfax news agency.

Russia announced Saturday that it intended to fulfill its contract to supply Syria with supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles despite furious condemnation of the deal by Israel.

"The contract is in the implementation stage," news agencies quoted Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov as saying.

New satellite images released by a U.S. research institute show Syria "tried to become a nuclear power," a senior Israeli defense official said on Friday.

Amos Gilad, director of political military affairs at the defense ministry, told army radio that the new images released by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) proved Syria was seeking nuclear weapons.

Two Iranian warships, the first to enter the Mediterranean from the Suez Canal since 1979, docked at the Syrian port of Latakia on Thursday, an Iranian diplomatic source told Agence France Presse in Damascus.

Israel has put its navy on high alert, denounced the ships' arrival in the region as an Iranian power play and branded their voyage "a provocation."

Satellite photos published by a Washington think tank on Wednesday appear to show Syrian efforts to conceal a second suspected nuclear site allegedly linked to a reactor bombed by Israel in 2007.

The photos acquired by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) indicate Syria tried to cover up its nuclear activities after the air raid, and could lead the U.N. nuclear watchdog to step up demands for inspections.