The U.N. Security Council will likely send thousands of additional soldiers to violence-wracked South Sudan to reinforce its mission and help it better protect civilians, diplomats said Monday.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has recommended the Security Council send 5,500 more soldiers and 423 extra police to reinforce the current deployment of nearly 7,000 soldiers, 700 police and 2,000 civilian employees.

The U.N. Security Council will hold emergency consultations on the situation in South Sudan later Monday, the French mission to the world body said.

The meeting, to begin at 5:00 pm (2200 GMT), will notably look at the possibility of reinforcing the U.N. mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).

Lebanese officials warned against Israel taking any “unilateral” steps in demarcating its maritime border in the areas near Lebanon, reported As Safir newspaper on Saturday.

Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth daily said that Israel is seeking to demarcate the maritime border in the area disputed with Lebanon through a draft law that will be proposed at the Knesset.

The U.N. Security Council on Monday "deplored" the killing of an Israeli soldier in a cross-border shooting and called for moves to ease tensions with Lebanon.

A statement agreed by the 15-nation body welcomed action already taken to investigate the killing on Sunday, which Israel has blamed on Lebanese troops.

Saudi Arabia's intelligence chief has held a new meeting in Russia with President Vladimir Putin on the Syrian conflict, the second closed-door encounter this year between the Russian leader and the key regional powerbroker.

The Kremlin said in a statement late Tuesday that Prince Bandar bin Sultan discussed with Putin at the president's suburban Moscow residence the situation in the Middle East and preparations for a Syria peace conference planned in January.

U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos made a new demand Tuesday that the U.N. Security Council press the Syrian government to allow greater access to trapped civilians, diplomats said.

The U.N. estimates that more than 2.5 million people are in areas that the U.N. and other aid agencies cannot reach because of the intensity of the 32-month-old civil war.

Special Tribunal for Lebanon spokesman Marten Youssef said on Monday that joining the cases of Ayyash et al. and the fifth suspect Hassan Habib Merhi is up to the international judges.

“The second Pre-Trial Conference by the Trial Chamber of the STL on Monday will decided the matter,” Youssef told An Nahar newspaper.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon David Hale stressed on Monday that his country will continue to confront Iran and its allies, including Hizbullah, “terrorist activities.”

“As we proceed with negotiations about Iran’s nuclear program, the United States will not ignore Iran’s destabilizing actions in the region,” Hale said after meeting with Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati at the Grand Serail.

Syrian government and opposition negotiators will meet for the first time since start of the country's 32 month-old war in Geneva from January 22, the U.N. announced Monday.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon called the landmark conference "a mission of hope" to end the civil war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on Monday there was "a real chance" to find a solution to the decade-old stand-off over Tehran's nuclear drive.

The Kremlin said Putin had called Rouhani to discuss the Syrian crisis as well as a new round of talks about the nuclear standoff that is set to begin in Geneva on Wednesday.