A meeting of the Syrian opposition hosted by the Qatari capital amounted to a "declaration of war," the country's deputy foreign minister, Faisal Muqdad, said on Wednesday, describing France's decision to recognize the opposition alliance as "immoral.”

"The Doha meeting was a declaration of war. These people (the opposition) don't want to solve the issue peacefully through the mechanisms of the U.N.," Muqdad told Agence France Presse.

Israel's foreign ministry has proposed in a policy paper "toppling" Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas if a Palestinian bid for state observer status at the United Nations is approved later this month.

"Toppling Abu Mazen's (Abbas's) regime would be the only option in this case," the position paper obtained by Agence France Presse says. "Any other option... would mean waving a white flag and admitting the failure of the Israeli leadership to deal with the challenge."

A meeting in Tokyo later this month aimed at increasing pressure on the Syrian regime could include several Southeast Asian countries, Japanese officials said Wednesday.

The November 30 meeting will bring together senior government officials from the "Friends of Syria Group" supporting the Syrian opposition and will focus on making sanctions more effective, a foreign ministry official said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday announced $30 million in extra humanitarian aid to those affected by the conflict in Syria, as she welcomed its new opposition coalition.

Clinton, in Australia for annual security and defense talks, said the formation of a new Syrian opposition coalition was "a good beginning".

Ten people were killed Wednesday when a rescue helicopter ferrying wounded people from a vehicle accident to hospital hit power lines and crashed to the ground in northeastern Iran, media reported.

Those who died included four members of the helicopter crew, five people who had been wounded in the minibus crash and a medic from the emergency services.

Syrian army tanks shelled a refugee camp and two nearby districts in southern Damascus on Wednesday as battles raged and warplanes bombarded a rebel-held northwestern town, a watchdog said.

The tanks were deployed at the Palestinian camp of Yarmuk overnight, as well as the nearby districts of Tadamun and Assali, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A spate of apparently coordinated attacks across Iraq on the eve of a festival marking the Islamic new year killed 19 people and wounded more than 150 others on Wednesday, officials said.

The 13 bombings and shootings struck in Baghdad and nine other cities, the security and medical officials said, and will likely raise tensions in a country mired in political deadlock and only relatively recently emerged from a brutal sectarian war.

North Korea tried to export ballistic missile parts to Syria in May in violation of U.N. sanctions, Japanese media said Wednesday, citing diplomats who have seen a classified U.N. report.

South Korean authorities inspected North Korean cargo bound for Syria and confiscated hundreds of cylinders that could be used to build the weapons, the Asahi Shimbun said.

The United States said Tuesday the newly formed opposition National Coalition is "a legitimate representative" of the Syrian people, but stopped short of recognizing it as a government-in-exile.

"We now have a structure in place that can prepare for a political transition, but... we're looking for it to still establish the types of technical committees that will allow us to make sure our assistance gets to the right places," State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said.

President Francois Hollande announced Tuesday that France recognized the newly formed Syria opposition as the sole representative of the people of the conflict-ravaged country and said it was time to review whether the rebels should be given arms.

"I announce that France recognizes the Syrian National Coalition as the sole representative of the Syrian people and thus as the future provisional government of a democratic Syria, allowing an end to the Bashar Assad regime," Hollande told a press conference.