Israel is gearing up for a deterioration in the regional situation, with a growing number of new threats facing the Jewish state, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday.

Netanyahu made the comments as he watched an exercise simulating the response to a chemical attack on a residential neighborhood in Jerusalem as part of an annual civil defense drill.

Russia warned on Wednesday that the European Union's decision to lift its arms embargo on the Syrian rebels harmed joint Russian-U.S. efforts for an international peace conference over the 26-month crisis.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the EU's original ban on arming the opposition made little sense because the 27-nation bloc's own laws prohibited it from sending weapons to "non-state entities" -- leaderships not formally recognized by the United Nations.

Four key activist groups on Wednesday accused Syria's main opposition National Coalition of failing to represent the views of the grassroots, in a sign that the anti-regime bloc was ever more alienated from the ground.

The groups demanded representation in the Coalition, and said they will not recognize any political group that fails to take their views into account.

South African diplomats were Wednesday heading to Yemen to try to secure the release of a couple kidnapped this week in the central city of Taiz, the foreign affairs ministry said.

"Yes they (the couple) are South Africans and our officials from the neighboring country of Saudi Arabia are traveling to Yemen to see how we can help secure their release," ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela told Agence France Presse.

Violence in Iraq on Tuesday killed 45 people, after evening attacks raised an earlier toll, the latest in a spate of unrest sparking concerns the country could be sliding back to all-out sectarian war.

The wave of shootings and bombings, which also wounded nearly 100 people, came the same day ministers discussed ways to curb the violence, while the U.N. has urged Iraq's feuding political leaders to resolve long-running disputes that have paralyzed the government and been blamed for its inability to halt the bloodshed.

Syrian President Bashar Assad is to give an interview Thursday to al-Manar, the television channel ofHizbullah which has fighters combating alongside government forces inside Syria, his office said.

The interview would be broadcast simultaneously on Syria's official television channels at 9:00 pm (18:00 GMT) on Thursday, the presidency announced on its Facebook page.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered his cabinet to stay silent on the issue of Russian missile deliveries to Syria, public radio said on Wednesday.

His remarks came after several ministers criticized Moscow's arms deals with Damascus and raised the possibility of an Israeli response should the Jewish state feel under threat.

Egypt's presidency said Tuesday it will submit a proposed law regulating civil society groups to the senate, insisting it reflects the values of the country's democratic uprising despite accusations it is restrictive.

The bill regulating foreign and local non-governmental groups would be submitted on Wednesday to the senate, which also acts as an interim parliament, Walid Zoghby, who helped to draw up the draft legislation, told Agence France Presse.

Syria's government on Tuesday slammed an EU decision to lift a ban on supplying arms to rebel fighters as an "obstruction" of efforts to resolve the conflict in the country peacefully.

"The European Union's decision exposes... its obstruction of international efforts to achieve a political settlement to the crisis in Syria," the foreign ministry said in a statement published by state news agency SANA.

France insisted Tuesday that the European Union's decision to lift its arms embargo on Syria's rebels was not meant as an aggressive move, after Russia said it would harm peace efforts.

"The decision to lift the embargo was not a belligerent decision, it is in support of a political solution," French foreign ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said.