U.S. President Barack Obama should use his second term to concentrate on "the real problem in the region," the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad said on Wednesday.

"We hope during the second term of President Obama, he pays more attention to the real problem in the Middle East, which also affects the people of the United States, namely the Palestinian issue, which must be resolved on the basis of international legitimacy," he said in an interview with AFP.

Syria's feared security forces arrested a Syrian Arab Red Crescent official and ambulance team leader in Damascus, a leading opposition bloc said on Wednesday, without specifying the reason.

Mohammed Raed al-Taweel, 36, was arrested last Thursday at a Red Crescent branch in the Abu Rummaneh district of Damascus, said the Syrian National Council.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Riyadh for talks with his Arab counterparts in the Gulf on Wednesday that are expected to highlight differences on the conflict in Syria.

Lavrov began his visit by meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, an AFP correspondent reported.

A Turkish court sentenced a Syrian national on Wednesday to over 12 years in prison for allegedly spying in refugee camps near the border with the conflict-wracked nation, the Anatolia news agency reported.

The court had initially sentenced Sbahi Hamdo and his Turkish accomplice to 15 years in prison for "gathering confidential state information with the aim of political or military espionage".

The March 14 General Secretariat demanded on Wednesday President Michel Suleiman to intervene to maintain the state's national security, calling on declaring a state of emergency in the southern port city of Sidon over the recent incidents.

"The recent incidents are expected as illegal arms are spreading (across Lebanon), amid the security agencies' failure to carry out their tasks,” it said in a statement after its weekly meeting.

A meeting of the Syrian opposition hosted by the Qatari capital amounted to a "declaration of war," the country's deputy foreign minister, Faisal Muqdad, said on Wednesday, describing France's decision to recognize the opposition alliance as "immoral.”

"The Doha meeting was a declaration of war. These people (the opposition) don't want to solve the issue peacefully through the mechanisms of the U.N.," Muqdad told Agence France Presse.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday criticized countries siding with the Syrian opposition and insisted Moscow was staying neutral in the conflict.

"We don't support anybody in this conflict, neither President (Bashar) Assad nor the rebels, contrary to what people generally think," Medvedev said in an interview with Finnish broadsheet Helsingin Sanomat.

A meeting in Tokyo later this month aimed at increasing pressure on the Syrian regime could include several Southeast Asian countries, Japanese officials said Wednesday.

The November 30 meeting will bring together senior government officials from the "Friends of Syria Group" supporting the Syrian opposition and will focus on making sanctions more effective, a foreign ministry official said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday announced $30 million in extra humanitarian aid to those affected by the conflict in Syria, as she welcomed its new opposition coalition.

Clinton, in Australia for annual security and defense talks, said the formation of a new Syrian opposition coalition was "a good beginning".

Syrian army tanks shelled a refugee camp and two nearby districts in southern Damascus on Wednesday as battles raged and warplanes bombarded a rebel-held northwestern town, a watchdog said.

The tanks were deployed at the Palestinian camp of Yarmuk overnight, as well as the nearby districts of Tadamun and Assali, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.