Britain's Foreign Minister William Hague said on Monday that the European Union will "intensify" sanctions against Iran over coming months if there is no progress in nuclear talks.

"We will intensify the sanctions over the coming months if there is no progress," Hague told reporters on arrival for talks among EU peers in Luxembourg, days from the entry into force of a ban on Iranian oil imports to the EU and after talks in Moscow between Iran and world powers failed to reach a breakthrough.

A U.N. panel has found Chinese involvement in more than half of the suspected violations of the North Korean arms and luxury goods embargoes, a Japanese media report said Friday.

The panel identified 38 instances in which banned goods have gone to or from North Korea. Of these, 21 have involved China, the Asahi Shimbun reported, citing unnamed sources.

The U.N. assistant secretary-general for political affairs warned Tuesday that Lebanon continues to faces security challenges due to the upheaval in Syria.

“The country continues to face challenges to its security and stability, partly due to the crisis in Syria,” Oscar Fernandez-Taranco told a U.N. Security Council session.

The United Nations is to keep unarmed monitors in Syria despite the escalation of hostilities which led to the suspension of patrols, top U.N. officials said Tuesday.

Major General Robert Mood, head of the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS), told the U.N. Security Council the nearly 300 monitors were "morally obliged" to stay despite facing intensive attacks, diplomats said.

Iran and world powers on Tuesday dug in for a second day of attritional talks in Moscow aimed at breaking an increasingly risky deadlock in the decade-long crisis over the Iranian nuclear program.

With the United States and Israel refusing to rule out military action and Tehran facing severe economic sanctions, the price of failure in the Russian capital could be high but there was no sign of progress on the first day.

Turkey's foreign minister called Saturday on the U.N. Security Council to take "a new measure" in Syria to stop the crisis there from getting worse after U.N. observers suspended their mission.

"In the event that this observer mission pulls back, there is need for the U.N. Security Council to immediately do a situation assessment and take a new measure to ensure the humanitarian tragedy does not move onto a next level," Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters.

The White House renewed calls Saturday for Bashar Assad to step down at a "critical juncture" in Syria after U.N. observers suspended their mission, saying it was discussing the way ahead with allies.

The unarmed observers have been targeted almost daily since deploying in mid-April to monitor a U.N.-backed but widely flouted ceasefire brokered by international envoy Kofi Annan, and they were likened to "sitting ducks in a shooting gallery" by Susan Rice, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations.

The former chief of the main opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) on Saturday urged the United Nations to deploy peacekeepers after U.N. observers suspended their mission in the country.

"We have to send U.N. peacekeepers to Syria on a mission with more people who would be able to protect themselves from the violence of the regime," said Burhan Ghalioun, ex-leader and current political bureau chief of the SNC.

The U.N. Security Council expressed "serious concern" Friday over Libya's detention of four International Criminal Court officials and called on the country to work toward their release.

A Security Council statement pointedly reminded Libyan authorities that they have to cooperate with the ICC under U.N. resolutions on the conflict last year that led to the overthrow of late strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

The U.N. observer force on Friday accused both sides in the Syrian conflict of hampering its peace mission and admitted its limitations in the face of escalating violence.

France, meanwhile, said that world powers could hold a summit on the Syrian crisis as the deadly anti-regime revolt entered its 16th month.