Syrian President Bashar al-Assad signed a decree to lift almost five decades of draconian emergency rule on Thursday, as a protest movement that has rocked his regime called further demonstrations.

Assad, who has been in power since he replaced his father 11 years ago, issued the order to scrap the state of emergency along with separate decrees to abolish the state security court and to allow citizens to protest peacefully.

President Michel Suleiman telephoned his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad on Monday to stress to him that Lebanon supports stability and security in Syria, a Baabda palace statement said.

Suleiman “discussed with him (Assad) the latest developments, bilateral ties and the reforms that President Assad had announced,” the statement said.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat condemned on Monday some Lebanese sides’ hope of instability breaking out in Syria, saying that its stability and security are linked to Lebanon’s.

He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: “Geographic, historic, and political experiences and the Taif Accord have proven this fact and therefore it’s crazy for Lebanese political or media circles to hope for instability in Syria.”

The State Department has been secretly financing opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad, The Washington Post reported, citing previously undisclosed diplomatic documents provided to the newspaper by the WikiLeaks website.

One of the outfits funded by the U.S. is Barada TV, a London-based satellite channel that broadcasts anti-government news into Syria, the Post reported Sunday. Barada's chief editor, Malik al-Abdeh, is a cofounder of the Syrian exile group Movement for Justice and Development.

A pledge by Syria's embattled president to lift almost 50 years of draconian emergency rule within a week was brushed aside as not enough on Sunday, as activists called for more protests.

President Bashar al-Assad's long-awaited announcement came on Saturday, on the eve of Independence Day, after a month of bloody protests and a global outcry for change in the autocratic country.

President Bashar al-Assad said on Saturday the emergency law in force in Syria for nearly 50 years will be abolished within a week, and expressed his sadness at the deaths of protesters.

"The juridical commission on the emergency law has prepared a series of proposals for new legislation, and these proposals will be submitted to the government, which will issue a new law within a week at the most," he said.

Caretaker PM Saad Hariri believed that the Syrian and Iranian regimes are the obstacles behind the deteriorating peace process in the Middle East, revealed a WikiLeakes cable published in al-Akhbar newspaper on Friday.

Hariri stated that Israel is “protecting” the Syrian regime because it fears the unknown.

Syria announced an amnesty Thursday for scores of prisoners detained since a wave of protests erupted on March 15 as it unveiled a new cabinet to replace the one that quit last month.

The promised release of prisoners came amid a growing international outcry over the authorities' crackdown on the demonstrations that have now spread from the provinces to the main cities of Damascus and Aleppo.

Thousands of women staged a sit-in Wednesday on a main highway in northeastern Syria to demand the release of hundreds of people arrested in protest towns in the region, a rights activist said.

"More than 5,000 women are gathered on the main road linking the towns of Tartus and Banias to demand the release of hundreds of people arrested yesterday in Baida by security forces," Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse.

Britain warned Tuesday against all but essential travel to Syria after a bloody weekend crackdown on anti-regime demonstrators.

"In light of the deteriorating security situation in Syria we have decided to change the overall level of our travel advice: we now advise against all but essential travel to Syria," Foreign Office Minister for Middle East and North Africa Alistair Burt said.