A Syrian-Saudi initiative aimed at finding a solution to the Lebanese crisis waits for a signal from Saudi King Abdullah, As-Safir newspaper reported Friday.

It cited a source who followed up on a visit to Paris by Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Syrian officials were stunned by the assassination of senior Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus two years ago, triggering a blame game between rival security services, according to WikiLeaks cables published by The Guardian newspaper.

U.S. reports from February 2008, revealed by WikiLeaks, described how the Assad regime was shocked when Mughniyeh was murdered by a sophisticated bomb planted in his car.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri told former U.S. Ambassador Michele Sison he feared another war with Israel would mean the "death" of his pro-Western March 14 alliance, leaked cables showed Monday.

A document reportedly obtained by whistleblowing website WikiLeaks and published on the website of local daily al-Akhbar quoted Hariri as saying he believed Hizbullah would rise again should there be another round of violence.

Saudi Ambassador Ali Awad Assiri said Monday that the Saudi-Syrian initiative aimed at ending the Lebanese crisis was not linked to the indictment that will be issued by the international tribunal in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination case.

“The Saudi-Syrian initiative … is ongoing and will continue. It has nothing to do with a decision or the release of an indictment,” Assiri told Voice of Lebanon radio station.

Syria's alleged interference in Lebanon and its increasingly sophisticated weapons shipments to Hizbullah have alarmed U.S. officials and prompted Israel's military to consider a strike against a Syrian arms depot, U.S. and Israeli officials told The Washington Post.

But Israel has so far hesitated to take military action out of concern that such a strike could touch off a conflict even bloodier than the 2006 war, said an Israeli military official.

Hizbullah deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem expressed optimism that the Syrian-Saudi initiative would solve the Lebanese crisis before the international tribunal issues its indictment in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri’s assassination case.

“There is still an opportunity to find a solution but the door will not remain open forever,” Qassem told As Safir newspaper in remarks published Saturday.

Arab diplomatic sources in Beirut said that Premier Saad Hariri sent a letter to the Syrian leadership stressing his commitment to agreements reached between Damascus and Riyadh.

The letter came in response to accusations that Hariri was not committed to Riyadh’s demands on a settlement of the Lebanese crisis, the sources told As Safir newspaper.

The political aides to Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri reportedly returned from Damascus with no new developments.

Al-Liwaa daily on Friday said Hizbullah's Hussein Khalil and Berri's Ali Hasan Khalil headed back home late Thursday after meeting Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem in an effort to help find a settlement to the ongoing Lebanon crisis.

Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Mohammed Raad has called for serious efforts to help the regional Saudi-Syrian initiative on Lebanon to succeed.

In remarks to As Safir newspaper, Raad said: “At a time when the Saudi-Syrian initiative is becoming more active to settle the crisis, this stage requires serious efforts to help the regional effort.”

The Lebanese government is increasingly "subordinate" to Iran and Syria, who have been helping Hizbullah rearm, a top U.S. lawmaker told U.N. special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen.

Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the diplomat on Tuesday that she was "concerned" U.S. and U.N. efforts in Lebanon were failing to counter Hizbullah's growing power.