The head of the Committee of Muslim Scholars, Sheikh Hassan Qaterji, said Sheikh Salem al-Rafehi travelled to Turkey to follow up the case of the 10 Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Syria.

Qaterji told An Nahar daily on Friday that al-Rafehi headed to Ankara based on Interior Minister Marwan Charbel’s request.

The opposition Syrian National Council urged the U.N. Security Council to impose a no-fly zone and humanitarian corridors to protect civilians caught in Syria's conflict, in a statement issued ahead of a U.N. council meeting on Thursday.

The SNC, accusing the government of "crimes" and "barbaric acts," said a no-fly zone and corridors were essential to protect almost 2.5 million civilians displaced by the conflict or who had fled across the borders with Syria's neighbors.

Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali hoped on Thursday that all Lebanese factions would resort to internal dialogue for the sake of their country and Lebanese-Syrian ties.

He said of calls for his expulsion: “Such desires are meaningless.”

Presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and Egypt's Mohammed Morsi on Thursday discussed the Syrian conflict and their states' severed diplomatic ties in their first-ever bilateral meeting, an official said.

"They emphasized the need to solve the Syria crisis via diplomacy and to prevent foreign intervention," Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian told Iran's Arabic-language broadcaster Al-Alam.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem accused Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi of using his speech at the Non-Aligned summit in Tehran on Thursday to incite further bloodshed in Syria.

Morsi's speech condemning the regime in Damascus, prompting a walkout by the Syrian delegation, amounted to "interference in Syria's internal affairs and ... incites continued bloodshed in Syria," Muallem said, quoted on state television.

Syrian rebels shot down a MiG fighter jet near a military airport in the northwest province of Idlib on Thursday, the Free Syrian Army chief of the province told Agence France Presse.

"I can confirm that a MiG was shot down this morning by our men using automatic weapons, shortly after taking off from Abu Zohur military airport in Idlib province. The two pilots who parachuted from the plane were captured," said Colonel Afif Mahmoud Suleiman, head of the Military Council in Idlib.

Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr decided on Thursday to transfer ex-Minister Michel Samaha, who was detained on suspicion of plotting terrorist attacks in Lebanon, to al-Rihaniyeh military prison in Baabda.

According to the National News Agency, Samaha was moved from his previous detention center in the military tribunal in Beirut's Mathaf area to al-Rihaniyeh for “security reasons.”

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi agrees that there can be no political solution for Syria unless President Bashar Assad leaves power, the French presidency said Wednesday.

In a statement issued following a telephone conversation between Morsi and French President Francois Hollande, the Elysee said: "The two heads of state mainly raised the situation in Syria and observed that no political solution is possible without the departure of Bashar Assad."

Progressive Socialist Party is scheduled to hold a popular rally on Friday afternoon near Samir Kassir Square in downtown Beirut in solidarity with the Syrian people and to demand the expulsion of the Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul Karim Ali.

“This rally comes in support of the political stances that are biased in favor of the Syrian people and to denounce the persistent of the killing machine,” the party’s media officer, Rami al-Rayyes, told the daily on Thursday.

Turkey said Wednesday it will allow Turkish lawmakers to visit a refugee camp set up for Syrian army defectors in a bid to quash rumors that the camp morphed into an underground rebel training base.

"We are working on allowing access into all (refugee settlements), including Apaydin camp, for members of a relevant parliamentary commission," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in televised remarks.