The United States on Wednesday accused a Belarus state-owned firm of supplying munitions to the Syrian government, as it announced new sanctions focused on the Syrian conflict.

The U.S. Treasury named Belarus firm Belvneshpromservice and the Syrian military's Army Supply Service for sanctions under U.S. executive order 13382 that identifies targets as proliferators or supporters of proliferators of weapons of mass destruction.

President Bashar Assad told Iran's foreign minister on Wednesday that the war engulfing Syria is targeting not just it but the "resistance axis," state news agency SANA reported.

Assad's regime, Iran, and Hizbullah refer to themselves as a "resistance axis" in their common opposition to Israel.

The head of Syria's main opposition coalition expressed reservations on Wednesday about the presence of staunch Damascus ally Iran in the regional contact group on the strife-torn country.

"We have informed the Qatari leadership of our reservations over the matter of having Iran join the quartet," Abdel Basset Sayda, chairman of the Syrian National Council, told AFP in Doha after meeting Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem.

A Turkish jet that crashed in June was downed after a Syrian missile exploded nearby in international airspace, the army said Wednesday, three months after an incident that heightened tensions between the two neighbors.

The probe by the army prosecutor into the downing of the two-seater F4 Phantom found that it crashed into the eastern Mediterranean after a Syrian missile exploded near its rearside, the army said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday denied allegations that the kingdom has barred citizens of war-hit Syria from performing the annual Muslim pilgrimage while local media said it has refused to increase hajj country quotas.

"The kingdom is currently working on finalizing all measures needed in coordination with the concerned authorities to enable Syrian pilgrims to perform" the pilgrimage, hajj ministry undersecretary Hatem Qadi said.

The March 14 General Secretariat condemned on Wednesday the anti-Islam film that mocks the Prophet Mohammed, saying its broadcast is aimed at placing Muslims in a “violent” confrontation with the West.

It said in a statement after its weekly meeting: “The real confrontation should not be directed against western people or governments, but with a handful of saboteurs seeking to tarnish the image of the Arab Spring and the promising future of the people of the region.”

Israel's army on Wednesday staged a surprise drill on the country's northern border, the military said, amid tensions over Iran's nuclear drive and the fate of Syria's chemical weapons.

The one-day exercise was ordered by army chief Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, a military statement said, "in order to examine the competence and preparedness of several units in the army, led by (the) artillery corps."

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani denied on Wednesday that his country banned granting visas to Lebanese Shiites over Hizbullah's stances from the revolt against Syrian president Bashar Assad.

“Our ties with Hizbullah are not bad, however, we have different points of view regarding the developments in Syria,” Sheikh Hamad said in remarks to the Kuwaiti al-Rai daily.

Amnesty accused Syrian forces Wednesday of waging "relentless, indiscriminate" attacks against its people as a Syrian army defector warned the regime would use chemical weapons as a last resort.

The London-based rights group, which accompanied its report with video footage, said "civilians, many of them children, are the main victims of a campaign of relentless and indiscriminate attacks by the Syrian army."

The Syrian regime had considered supplying chemical weapons to Hizbullah as a war between the party and Israel will “only be good for Syria,” the former head of Syria's chemical arsenal told The Times newspaper in an interview published Wednesday.

Major-General Adnan Sillu said he defected from the Syrian army three months ago after being party to top-levels talks about the use of chemical weapons on both rebel fighters and civilians.