U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is ready to help settle a dispute between Iran and the United States on Tehran's frozen assets, but only if both countries make that request, a U.N. spokesman said Friday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called on Ban to use his "good offices" to press the United States to release all frozen assets in US banks, in a letter sent Thursday.

A Syrian child died on Friday after suffering from a gunshot wound to the head a day earlier, reported the National News Agency.

It said that ten-year-old Hussein al-Issa was brought to a hospital in the northeastern region of Wadi Khaled after being struck by a stray bullet.

Jordan is permitting a popular Lebanese rock band to perform, lifting an earlier ban imposed amid claims the group's songs promoting religious and sexual freedom violate local customs and religious beliefs.

Khalid Abu Zeid, a regional politician who initially announced the ban against "Mashrou Leila," or Leila's Project, said in a new statement that "we don't mind if this concert takes place." He didn't elaborate.

Lebanon's court rejected on Friday an appeal requesting the release of ex-MP Hassan Yaacoub who was arrested on alleged links to the December kidnapping of Hannibal Gadhafi, the state-run National News Agency reported.

South Lebanon's Public Prosecutor Judge Afif al-Qadi has rejected the appeals request by Yaacoub's defense team, NNA added.

The Electricity of Lebanon has completed a plan that would increase energy production after raising the capabilities of two Turkish power generating vessels that supply Lebanon with power, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday.

“EDL concluded a plan that would increase power supply by about 100 megawatts after raising the production capacities of the two ships that lie off the Zahrani and Zouk power plants from 280 megawatts to 380 megawatts,” an informed source to the daily on condition of anonymity.

Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh has said Lebanese banks will not be able to circumvent a U.S. law that imposes sanctions on banks, which knowingly do business with Hizbullah.

Salameh told LBCI’s Kalam al-Nass talk show on Thursday night that the Central Bank will issue two circulars that urge Lebanese banks to implement the law and inform it about the closure and opening of accounts.

An Israeli military official has said that Hizbullah’s military activities on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights are similar to what Israel observed prior to the 2006 summer war.

Hizbullah is “obsessively” tracking and monitoring Israeli soldiers from across the border, Lt. Col. Eliav Elbaz told Israel’s Channel 2.

Iran asked the United Nations on Thursday to intervene with the U.S. government over a Supreme Court ruling that allows nearly $2 billion in frozen Iranian assets to be paid to victims of terrorist attacks, including the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, for which the Middle Eastern country has been blamed.

In a letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Thursday, Iran's Foreign Minister Javid Zarif argues that the U.S. court decision will have "catastrophic implications" and "will cause systematic erosion" of the principal of state immunity.

Head of the Mustaqbal Movement MP Saad Hariri held talks on Friday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul, highlighting Ankara's role in the region and Iran's “negative” one.

He said: “We seek good ties with Tehran, but its negative meddling in the affairs of the countries of the region are preventing us from achieving this goal.”

The army carried out on Thursday raids in the eastern Bekaa town of Brital, reported the National News Agency.

It said that the military was searching for wanted suspects.