The world's chemical watchdog called Friday for Syria to "pick up the pace" in shipping out its chemical weapons stockpile after a key deadline was missed.

"The need for the process to pick up the pace is obvious," Director General Ahmet Uzumcu said in a statement after a meeting of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons' (OPCW) executive council on Thursday in The Hague.

President Michel Suleiman dismissed on Thursday Israeli threats to target residential buildings in Lebanon and civilians as a clear violation to U.N. Security Council resolution 1701.

“The Israeli threats clearly violate resolution 1701 on both political and international levels, in addition to the human rights principles,” Suleiman said in a statement.

The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday gave European troops backing to use force in Central African Republic amid a new international push to end deadly chaos in the country.

The United Nations believes at least 10,000 troops will eventually be needed to restore order, France's U.N. ambassador said after the latest U.N. Security Council initiative on the crisis.

The U.N. Security Council on Thursday pressed Mali's new government to speed up efforts to start reconciliation talks with Tuareg and Arab groups to end the country's conflict.

"The Security Council reiterates its call for an inclusive and credible negotiation process open to all communities of the north of Mali, with the goal of securing a durable political resolution to the crisis and longterm peace and stability," said a council statement.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council denounced the Haret Hreik bombing, which targeted a Hizbullah stronghold, calling on the rival Lebanese parties to preserve unity and state institutions.

“The recurrent acts of terrorism and violence in Lebanon are totally unacceptable,” Ban's spokesperson quoted him as saying.

Syrian President Bashar Assad described the Special Tribunal for Lebanon as “politicized,” saying that it's only a tool to pressure Hizbullah.

"Nine years have passed since the beginning of this trial. Has justice been served? Every accusation was made for political reasons," he said on Sunday in an exclusive interview with Agence France Presse, days after the Special Tribunal for Lebanon began hearing evidence in the 2005 killing of Rafik Hariri.

Western countries in addition to Russia and China are expected to exert more pressure on Lebanese parties to elect a new president on time and avoid a vacuum, Western diplomatic sources said.

The sources told pan-Arab daily al-Hayat published on Friday that the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China are among the countries pushing for parliament's election of the president starting March 25.

A U.N.-hosted peace conference on Syria must work to remove President Bashar Assad from power because of his culpability for tens of thousands of deaths, Turkey's Prime Minster said in Tokyo on Tuesday.

"In Geneva 2, we must make sure that... all the measures will not fail...so that we can (bring) in an era without Bashar Assad," he said, referring to peace talks planned later this month in Switzerland.

The U.N. Security Council rejected all forms of terrorism after a deadly explosion targeted Beirut's southern suburbs on Thursday, urging the Lebanese to preserve national unity and stick to the dissociation policy.

“Terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, and that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed,” the Security Council said.

The United Nations on Sunday reported armed groups close to a key town in South Sudan amid battles between supporters of the country's president and vice president.

A U.N. surveillance aircraft spotted the groups 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Bor, capital of Jonglei state, which has become a focus of a power struggle between President Salva Kiir and former vice president Riek Machar.