Syrian state news agency SANA on Thursday quoted President Bashar al-Assad as rejecting any foreign intervention.

"The Syrian people are attached to their unity and Arab identity despite all the difficulties, and understand the breadth of the plots against their security and cohesion," he was quoted as telling a group of people opposed to outside intervention.

The Israeli army has changed its operational assessment “regarding the threat from Lebanon and is currently working under the assumption that Hizbullah has obtained sophisticated long-range surface-to-air missile systems from Syria,” the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post reported Thursday.

“According to Western intelligence assessments, Hizbullah is believed to have taken advantage of the ongoing upheaval in Syria to obtain advanced weapons systems, such as additional long-range rockets as well as Russian-made air-defense systems,” TJP said.

Syria has lost more than $2 billion in revenues since September 1 as a result of European and U.S. bans on importing its oil, Oil Minister Sufian Allaw said on Thursday.

"We have suffered important losses as a result of our inability to export crude oil and petroleum products," Allaw told a news conference in Damascus.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat on Thursday held talks in Doha with Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani on the latest developments in the region.

During his visit to Qatar, Jumblat told the Doha-based satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera that “violence will only breed violence in Syria,” reiterating his warning that the revolt-hit country might descend into a “civil war.”

Australia urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down on Thursday and said he should be tried before the International Criminal Court for "atrocities" against his people.

"Our view in Australia is that Assad must go," Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters at the French foreign ministry in Paris, at a joint appearance with his counterpart Alain Juppe.

Alawite intellectuals denounced on Thursday what they said are efforts by the Syrian government and parts of the opposition to link their sect to the regime, warning against the consequences of casting a popular uprising for civil rights in a sectarian light.

The group, which includes writers and journalists, denounced the "government's efforts to link the Alawite community and religious minorities to the regime by manipulating the security situation and the media."

Syrian security forces on Thursday killed at least 24 people across the country, including four leading pro-democracy activists, as dissident soldiers killed a general in the flashpoint central city of Hama, activists and a rights group said.

“The number of martyrs has risen to 24,” the Local Coordination Committees, the main activist network spurring protests on the ground, said on its Facebook page.

The head of the Arab League's heavily criticized observer mission to Syria was due in Cairo on Thursday to report on its first month of operations amid growing frustration at its failure to staunch 10 months of bloodshed.

The pan-Arab bloc's deputy leader, Ahmed Ben Helli, said the "decisive" report would evaluate the Syrian government's cooperation with the mission, while noting the observers' difficulty in gaining access to hot spots.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea called on Hizbullah to negotiate with political parties in Lebanon to reach a “historical settlement” over its arms and all the controversial issues amid the developments in the region.

“It may seem a hard step but it’s courageous and necessary… The sooner the better because changes (in the region) will decrease the value of its (Hizbullah’s) weapons… Until it becomes a burden on it,” Geagea said in remarks published in As Safir newspaper on Thursday.

Speaker Nabih Berri noted on Wednesday that Lebanon may act as a center for dialogue in the region.

He stressed before a consular delegation: “It is in the country’s best interest to keep a distance from external affairs.”