Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's time as president is all but up as he pursues a bloody crackdown on dissidents, Israeli deputy prime minister Moshe Ya'alon said Thursday.

"It seems that he's approaching his end as leader of Syria," Ya'alon said after meeting Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg of the Czech Republic, a country that is a traditional Israeli ally.

Syria, isolated over its deadly protest crackdown, hopes to cash in on support from neighbors Iraq and Lebanon to counter Arab sanctions that threaten to choke its economy.

"We know how to manage when the going gets rough, because we have been facing sanctions for years," a Syrian official told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

Some 150 Lebanese and Syrian protesters gathered in the northern city of Tripoli Friday to demand Syria's President Bashar al-Assad step down and warning his Lebanese ally, Hizbullah, that it would be next.

Chanting "Down with Bashar al-Assad" and "Your turn is next, Hizbullah," they gathered outside the local Qubba mosque before making their way through the densely populated city.

The exiled Syrian opposition on Tuesday failed to convince Moscow to toughen its stance against the regime of defiant leader Bashar al-Assad, the leader of the Paris-based dissident delegation said.

Members of the largest and most representative Syrian opposition grouping, the Syrian National Council -- led by its head Burhan Ghalioun -- traveled to Moscow for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The EU is readying a freeze on European Investment Bank credits to Syria as it mulls further sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad's regime after months of bloodshed, diplomats said Tuesday.

A diplomatic source said the EIB would suspend new credits and freeze disbursement of outstanding credits while also stopping all technical assistance, such as audits and feasibility studies.

Security forces killed at least 19 civilians as anti-regime demonstrations were staged across Syria on Sunday, the first day of the Muslim feast marking the end of the hajj, a human rights group said.

It was the fourth straight day of deadly violence since Syria agreed to an Arab peace blueprint aimed at ending nearly eight months of bloodshed.

Following is a list of successive promises made by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad towards introducing reforms and ending the opposition protest movement.

March 2011: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in his first public statement since the start of protests on March 15, says Syria is facing a "conspiracy."

The Arab League plan accepted by Damascus to end the bloodshed in Syria is a life raft for President Bashar al-Assad's regime as it sets no real deadlines and stipulates no implementation mechanisms, analysts say.

"The Arab countries are trying to save one of their pillars from falling, and it's not clear that they seek to save the Syrian people," said London-based analyst Abdul Wahab Badrkhan.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he believes the Syrian opposition will be successful in their “glorious resistance” to the ongoing government crackdown, Turkey’s English-language daily Today’s Zaman reported Tuesday.

Speaking during his Justice and Development Party's parliamentary bloc meeting on Tuesday, Erdogan warned that Turkey cannot remain silent in the face of the events in Syria.

Referring embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the International Criminal Court is “something possible,” European Parliament chief Jerzy Buzek said on Sunday.

In an interview with the U.S.-funded, Arabic-language Radio Sawa, Buzek noted that the international community was “definitely seeking to aid the Syrian people,” but noted that “there is a difference between the Syrian issue and the Libyan issue.”