Rebels fighting troops loyal to Damascus on Thursday briefly seized the only crossing along the Israel-Syria ceasefire line in the Golan Heights, before regime forces recaptured it, an Agence France Presse correspondent and Israeli sources said.

The Quneitra crossing is in the demilitarized zone on the Golan Heights, most of which Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War.

The capture by Syrian pro-government forces of the strategic Qusayr region is a major victory for President Bashar Assad, who is now better placed than ever if a US-Russian plan for peace talks materializes.

The nearly three-week battle for Qusayr in central Syria exposed the central role played by Hizbullah, a key Assad backer.

France and Britain have both confirmed for the first time that chemical arms were used in Syria and Paris says a line has been crossed. So what next in a conflict that has cost over 94,000 lives?

Not much, experts predict, amid resistance from Syria allies Russia and China and ahead of a proposed peace conference, coupled with painful memories of the Iraq war, which was justified by supposed evidence of weapons of mass destruction that never materialized.

Palestinian officials renewed demands on Wednesday for a two-state settlement based on 1967 borders, as they marked the 46th anniversary of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat visited three villages in the West Bank whose populations fled advancing Israeli troops in the Six Day War.

Some 200 members of Morocco's pro-reform February 20 protest movement gathered outside the justice ministry in Rabat on Wednesday to demand the release of political prisoners, an Agence France Presse journalist reported.

The protesters were joined by hundreds of unemployed graduates, who hold near-daily demonstrations in the capital.

Two Iranian presidential candidates on Wednesday criticized broad restrictions imposed on the press in the Islamic republic, asking for more freedom in this domain where unfavorable reporting against the regime could lead to punishment.

"They ban newspapers, prevent a book from being published or ban a film. These are things that must be corrected," Mohammad Reza Aref, the sole reformist candidate among eight hopefuls seeking to replace President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 14 election, said during a televised debate.

Incoming Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said he would announce the composition of his government on Thursday evening and reiterated that his cabinet would govern only for a transitional period.

Hamdallah also said that most ministers in the existing cabinet would retain their posts.

Arab foreign ministers gave their support on Wednesday to Russian and U.S. plans for a Syria peace conference even as organizers said it would now not be held before next month.

The ministers, who met at Arab League headquarters in Cairo, called on the warring parties in Syria to negotiate an end to the 26-month civil war, saying a political solution was the only option.

French President Francois Hollande said Wednesday that the world was obligated to act in response to concrete evidence of the deadly nerve agent sarin being used in Syria.

"We have provided the elements of proof that now obligate the international community to act," Hollande told reporters in Paris a day after France revealed that it had firm evidence sarin had been used by the Syrian regime in at least one case.

Rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime will fight "until the whole country is liberated", opposition chief George Sabra said Wednesday, after the army and Hizbullah fighters overran the strategic town of Qusayr.

"We say to the heroes in the Free Syrian Army: this is a small juncture, in which you proved your rare heroism. It will be followed by the liberation of the whole country," Sabra said.