Progress in the release of the nine Lebanese pilgrims held in Syria's Aazaz region was achieved by Qatar on Wednesday, reported al-Liwaa newspaper on Saturday.

A Turkish source told the daily that Qatar crowned its negotiations with the kidnappers by paying them 150 million dollars for the release of the pilgrims who were abducted in Syria's Aleppo region in May 2012.

Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel stressed on Saturday that the case of the Lebanese pilgrims, who were kidnapped last year in Syria, has reached an end.

“We are waiting for the Turkish authorities to hand them over to us... The process will be discussed on Saturday in Ankara,” Charbel said in comments published in As Safir newspaper.

An official in the fundamentalist al-Nusra Front has threatened to target Hizbullah strongholds in Lebanon in response to the party's involvement in the fighting in Syria alongside the country's regime, reported the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah daily on Saturday.

He vowed that the front will respond to the killing of Syrians by targeting Hizbullah strongholds of Dahieh in Beirut, the Bekaa city of Baalbek, and southern Lebanon, a military leader of the Syrian opposition quoted him as saying.

Two Turkish Airlines pilots who were kidnapped in Lebanon in August are close to being released, Turkey's foreign minister said Friday.

"Very favorable developments are under way concerning the two Turkish pilots, this matter has been largely settled," Ahmet Davutoglu said on local television, adding that the men could be freed "within hours or days".

Qatari Foreign Minister Khaled al-Attiya on Friday announced that “the Qatari mediation has led to the release of the nine Lebanese” hostages who were abducted in Syria's Aazaz and Lebanese officials have confirmed his remarks.

Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera television reported the story in a breaking news ticker without elaborating any further.

Former Premier Saad Hariri on Friday compared “the wound” caused by the 2012 assassination of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan to the wound caused by the assassination of his father, ex-prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.

“We have always called for justice and for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon regarding the assassination of Premier Rafik Hariri, and now we have the same demands regarding the assassination of Brigadier General al-Hasan,” the slain commander of the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Friday accused the Syrian regime of being behind the August twin blasts that left at least 45 people dead and 500 injured in the northern city of Tripoli, urging a response from the Lebanese state.

“The cell that staged the twin bombings has been busted and the details of the operation have become known and the (Internal Security Forces) Intelligence Bureau has unveiled the details of the operation. Judge Saqr Saqr interrogated the suspects and issued arrest warrants for them and these are judicial facts, but some parties want to distort these facts,” Geagea said in a speech during a graduation ceremony for LF cadres.

Saudi Arabia intends to propose a U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning the presence of foreign fighters in Syria, especially those dispatched by Hizbullah, a media report said on Friday.

According to a copy of the draft resolution obtained by Sky News Arabia, the text condemns “the intervention of all fighters in Syria, including those fighting to support the Syrian regime and especially Hizbullah's intervention.”

The ambassadors of the European Union held a meeting with President Michel Suleiman on Friday during which they pledged additional support for Lebanon in coping with the burden of Syrian refugees in the country.

EU Ambassador Angelina Eichhorst said after the talks: “An additional amount of 70 million euros will be allocated by the EU humanitarian agency ECHO to help the poorest refugees through the winter.”

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged on Friday 18 Palestinians, only one of them in custody, for planning terrorist activities, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said that among those who received the charges were Wissam Ahmed Naim, who was recently arrested for forging identification documents for suspected terrorists, and Toufiq Tah from the Islamist al-Nusra Front.