The U.N. Security Council on Thursday slapped sanctions on two Iranian firms accused of supplying arms to the Syrian government, a U.N. statement said.

Yas Air and the SAD Import Export Company were added to a growing Iran sanctions list for breaching an arms embargo ordered against the Islamic republic for its nuclear drive.

The United Nations warned Lebanon on Wednesday that the alleged Lebanese fighting in Syria's civil war put the country increasingly at risk of being dragged into the conflict.

The U.N. Security Council meanwhile expressed concern over Syrian army operations in the Golan Heights ceasefire zone with Israel and said that also threatens to extend the 21-month old civil war.

The U.N. Security Council renewed its sanctions regime against the Afghan Taliban on Monday, but adapted it to help those on the blacklist travel outside of Afghanistan for peace talks.

There are 132 individuals and four entities on the current sanctions list, and diplomats voiced hope that the travel exemptions would help promote peace and reconciliation with foreign troops due to leave the country in 2014.

The U.N. Security Council, including China and the United States, on Wednesday condemned North Korea for carrying out a banned rocket launch and warned it could take further action.

"Members of the Security Council condemned this launch which is a clear violation of Security Council resolutions 1718 and 1874," said a statement by the 15-nation body after emergency consultations.

The U.N. atomic agency's chief inspector said he hopes Iran will grant his team access to the Parchin military base during talks in Tehran on Thursday.

"We also hope that Iran will allow us to go the site of Parchin, and if Iran would grant us access we would welcome that chance and we are ready to go," Herman Nackaerts told reporters at Vienna airport on Wednesday on his way to Tehran for the meeting.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister urged on Tuesday the international community to have a unified position over Syria after the war-torn country's opposition formed a coalition last month.

"We see in forming the new Syrian coalition an important positive step towards uniting the opposition under one banner," Prince Saud al-Faisal told reporters.

The U.N. Security Council warned North Korea against carrying out a long-range missile test after fresh analysis of new satellite imagery confirmed apparent North Korean preparations for an imminent test.

"We all agree it would be extremely inadvisable to proceed with the test," the head of the North Korea sanctions committee at the council, Portuguese Ambassador Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral, told reporters in New York on Thursday.

The U.N. Security Council on Thursday warned North Korea against carrying out what the international community believes could be an imminent long-range missile test.

"We all agree it would be extremely inadvisable to proceed with the test," the head of the North Korea sanctions committee at the council, Portuguese Ambassador Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral, told reporters.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis over Iran's nuclear activities need to be pursued with "urgency," the head of the U.N. atomic agency said Thursday.

"The IAEA is firmly committed to dialogue," International Atomic Energy Agency head Yukiya Amano said at the start of a two-day meeting of the U.N. body's board set to be dominated by Iran's program.

China can play a "special role" in the Middle East, a Palestinian envoy said Friday, following eight days of deadly conflict between Israel and militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Bassam al-Salhi, a representative of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, was speaking after talks in Beijing on efforts to upgrade his people's status at the United Nations and maintain calm in the region.