Yemen's embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh said on Saturday he would hand the country over to the military if he were to step down as demanded by the opposition.

"We... are ready to make sacrifices for the country. But you will always be there, even if we step down," Saleh told loyalist troops, in statements carried by the official Saba news agency.

President Michel Suleiman discussed on Saturday with Brazilian Vice President Michel Temer the importance of developing the bilateral relations between the two countries, asking assistance to pressure Israel to implement U.N. Security Council resolution 1701.

Suleiman stressed during a meeting with Temer at Baabda Palace on the importance of reforming the United Nations and the World Trade Organizations.

At least 17 people were killed across Syria on Saturday, activists said, as an Arab League deadline for Damascus to stop its lethal crackdown on dissent was set to expire.

Among the dead were four intelligence agents killed by gunmen who raked their car with gunfire and two mutinous soldiers who died in clashes with regular troops as the military raided the central town of Shayzar after a heavy shelling, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Friday called for restraint over the Syria crisis, after talks with his French counterpart who accused President Bashar Assad of being deaf to pressure.

"We are calling for restraint and caution. This is our position," Putin told a news conference, the day after his foreign minister had likened the situation in Syria to a civil war.

Switzerland said Friday it has tightened sanctions against Iran, adding 116 names including Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi to a blacklist of key players under financial and travel embargo.

The updated blacklist includes several officials from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), and 111 companies, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Friday that the "time has come to increase sanctions" against the Syrian regime.

"The situation is no longer sustainable," and "the ongoing repression is unacceptable," Juppe told reporters during a visit to Ankara.

European nations said Thursday they have key Arab support for a U.N. resolution condemning human rights abuses by the Syrian government.

Diplomats from Germany, France and Britain tabled the resolution at the U.N. General Assembly's human rights committee on Thursday for a vote expected next Tuesday, officials said.

A resolution being hammered out at the U.N. nuclear watchdog on Iran sets Tehran no deadline for responding to the body's damning new report on its nuclear program, diplomats said Thursday.

Instead the International Atomic Energy Agency's board will call on the watchdog's head Yukiya Amano merely to brief the board on progress, a Western diplomat said, something the Japanese would most likely do anyway.

Hizbullah slammed on Thursday United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s report on the implementation of Security Council resolution 1701.

“Ban confirmed once again that he is completely biased towards the west instead of implementing the goals of the international organization to establish peace and stability around the world,” the party said in a statement.

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Ad Interim Robert Watkins stated on Wednesday that the U.N. is “relatively pleased” with the quiet and stability in the South.

He said after holding talks with Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea: “We still feel there is a lot of progress that needs to be made towards a permanent ceasefire” by both Israel and Lebanon.