The Syrian opposition rejected a proposal by former U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford for the rebels to negotiate with Hizbullah and other factions fighting alongside President Bashar Assad's troops as part of a political solution to the civil war.

In remarks published Thursday, the spokesman of the Syrian National Coalition, Louay Safi, said: “We only negotiate with the Syrians and we won't accept the participation of foreign militias that kill the Syrian people in the political solution.”

Hizbullah had recently established a small military airport in the Bekaa city of Baalbek and is operating Iranian-made drones, the Saudi al-Watan daily reported on Thursday.

According to the daily, Hizbullah also created high-security secret tunnels and depots, that were dug under Iranian supervision.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon David Hale on Tuesday called on Hizbullah to stop contributing to the Syrian conflict, describing the Assad regime as the "magnet" that has been attracting extremist groups into Syria and into Lebanon.

“We oppose terrorism in all its forms and frankly the Assad regime has been the magnet that's been bringing the extremist, takfiri terrorist threat here, into Lebanon and into Syria,” Hale said during an interview on LBCI television.

A Syrian officer and his men took a breather Tuesday outside a mosque in dusty village of Sahel as they awaited the greenlight to resume their offensive on nearby Yabrud.

The rebel-held town in the Qalamoun mountains lies on the strategic highway linking Damascus to Homs, Syria's third city. Close to the Lebanese border, it is crucial to rebel supply lines.

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday directly urged Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to recognize Israel as a Jewish state and to "abandon the fantasy" of flooding Israel with refugees.

But his remarks sparked a furious reaction from the Palestinians who denounced his demand and said it had effectively put the final nail in the coffin of the U.S.-led peace talks.

Three rockets fired from Syria struck residential neighborhoods in the Bekaa town of al-Labweh on Tuesday, in an attack that was swiftly claimed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, which prompted some residents to block the road to nearby Arsal and assault passersby.

The "Damascus Prefecture" of the Qaida-inspired ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack on its Twitter account and published pictures of rockets and masked fighters.

Syrian troops seized control Monday of a village near the strategic rebel bastion of Yabrud as they pushed closer to the town near the border with Lebanon, Syria's state television said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, meanwhile, said the army, backed by Lebanon's Hizbullah, was "advancing" in the area, but that "fierce battles are still ongoing there."

The Phalange Party on Monday announced that it will not provide a political cover for Hizbullah's military intervention in Syria or for its weapons even if that threatened the collapse of Prime Minister Tammam Salam's cabinet that was formed after an 11-month deadlock.

“This resistance has lost its legitimacy and half the Lebanese have major questions over it and therefore there is no consensus over the resistance. Nothing can be imposed on half the Lebanese in the cabinet,” MP Sami Gemayel, the party's central committee coordinator, said at a press conference.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed Monday that it is “unavoidable” to reconcile between the Baabda Declaration and the right to resist Israel in the ministerial policy statement, urging an end to futile debates in this regard.

“Lebanon does not need more hot and cold wars and it is unavoidable to reconcile between the various proposals over the Baabda Declaration – which, to remind, was endorsed unanimously – and Lebanon's right to protect its border and resist any possible Israeli aggression,” Jumblat said in his weekly editorial in al-Anbaa online newspaper.

Lebanese Forces MP Strida Geagea said Monday that she received threats on her mobile, calling on security agencies to pursue the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

Geagea “received a series of phone calls issuing different threats against her on Sunday and today (Monday),” her press office said in a statement.