Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday that Turkey "recognizes the Syrian National Coalition as the sole legitimate representative of the people of Syria."

Davutoglu made the comments during a ministerial meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation which is being held in Djibouti, according to Anatolia news agency.

Russia on Thursday warned nations backing the Syrian opposition against President Bashar Assad that they would violate international law if they started supplying the rebels with weapons.

"Promises are being made from a number of capitals of massive supplies of modern weapons," foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told reporters.

Gunfire from Syria hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Thursday morning, the Israeli military said, in the latest spillover of violence from the bloody civil war raging across the ceasefire line.

"Stray bullets fired in Syria reached Israel. No soldiers were injured by the gunfire," a spokeswoman said.

French President Francois Hollande will on Saturday meet the new head of Syria's new opposition National Coalition, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, in Paris, his office said.

France on Tuesday became the first Western country to recognize the coalition as the sole representative of the Syrian people.

Violence in Syria since an uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime erupted 20 months ago has claimed the lives of more than 39,000 people, mostly civilians, a watchdog said on Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights listed 27,410 civilians, 9,800 soldiers and 1,359 military deserters as among those killed since the uprising began on March 15, 2011.

The Damascus region came under artillery fire and air strikes on Thursday as the army launched a major operation, a watchdog said, as activists decried the critical humanitarian situation.

The artillery was focused on the town of Daraya, just southwest of Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, also reporting shelling on the northeast town of Mudamiyeh al-Sham and air raids on the nearby town of Saqba.

France will raise the issue of excluding defensive weapons from the current arms embargo on Syria to help rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's regime, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Thursday.

"For the moment, there is an embargo, so there are no arms being delivered from the European side. The issue... will no doubt be raised for defensive arms," Fabius told RTL radio.

Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri stressed on Thursday that hijacking the state's will harms the Lebanese as he is holding onto toppling PM Najib Miqati's government and the formation of a cabinet that is capable of carrying out “fair elections.”

“We have no choice as Lebanese but to meet under the auspices of the state and its institutions... No team has the right to control another by its military force or through its regional links,” Hariri said in an interview with pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat.

President Barack Obama said Wednesday the United States is encouraged by Syria's new opposition coalition but is not ready to crown it the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

"We're not yet prepared to recognize them as some sort of government in exile, but we do think that it is a broad-based representative group," Obama told reporters at the first news conference since his re-election.

The new head of Syria's opposition is a "very moderate" figure who inspires confidence, a leading activist was once imprisoned by the regime for waging an Internet campaign said on Wednesday.

"I am very optimistic because I have a lot of faith in Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib," Hanadi Zahlout, who was in Italy as part of a campaign organized by Amnesty International, said in an interview with Vatican radio.