Regional players, including Hizbullah, are intervening more and more openly in Syria, some emboldened by the chaos created by the conflict, others desperate to prevent the fall of the regime, experts say.

The conflict between President Bashar Assad's government and rebel forces has divided the Middle East, with his allies -- Iran and Hizbullah -- lined up against Gulf states which back the uprising.

A Kenyan court on Monday sentenced two Iranians to life in prison on terror-related charges, including the possession of explosives allegedly to be used in bomb attacks.

"I shudder to imagine the amount of damage that could have been seen," Judge Kiarie Waweru Kiarie told the court in the capital Nairobi.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani denounced on Monday the Israeli attack on Damascus, pointing out that the Lebanese should save their nation before it slips into a “sedition.”

“The Israeli attack on Damascus reveals the Zionist terrorism and the violations it commits against the sovereignty of countries,” Qabbani said.

A top Iranian general said any arms Israel targeted in Syria did not come from the Islamic republic, in remarks published on the Revolutionary Guards website on Monday.

Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri "denied Western and Israeli media reports that an Iranian weapons depot has been targeted in Syria," the website reported.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in Beijing on Monday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu due to follow him later this week.

Abbas's three-day trip -- the first by a Middle Eastern leader since Xi took office in March -- ends Tuesday, overlapping with a five-day visit to China by Netanyahu that begins in Shanghai on Monday and ends in the capital.

Iran is ready to help "train" the Syrian army if Damascus seeks such assistance, the commander of the Islamic republic's army ground forces, General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, was quoted as saying on Sunday.

"As a Muslim nation, we back Syria, and if there is need for training we will provide them with the training, but won't have any active involvement in the operations," he said in remarks reported by the official IRNA news agency.

Lebanese pilgrims, who have been held hostage in Syria since May last year, appeared on a videotape broadcast by two television stations on Saturday and Sunday, as their families warned that they "do not want to see any Turk" in Lebanon after May 22 should Turkey fail to secure the release of their loved ones.

The men were seen talking in the footage but the accompanying audio was inaudible when the video was broadcast by al-Jazeera satellite TV station on Saturday.

The United States still hopes a conference aimed at creating a nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East can take place soon, a high-level U.S. official said Friday, urging regional players to cooperate.

"I think it could be very soon, if the will exists among the regional parties to engage with each other and to respect each others' needs," said Thomas Countryman, U.S. assistant secretary of international security and nonproliferation.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stated that the political powers “without exception” can reach an agreement over the hybrid parliamentary electoral law, while voicing his disappointment with Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's latest speech, reported As Safir newspaper Friday.

He told the daily: “The hybrid law can help ease the political and religious monopolization of power.”

The EU's top diplomat Catherine Ashton will meet chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in Istanbul on May 15 in a fresh effort to defuse international concern over Tehran's disputed nuclear drive.

Ashton's office said "the talks are a follow-up to the last round of negotiations held in Almaty" on April 5 and 6 that failed to produce an accord.