Syrian government forces intensified their shelling Wednesday of positions seized by rebels in the coastal province of Latakia, focusing on the Kasab border crossing into Turkey, an army officer said.

The province is the historic heartland of President Bashar Assad's clan and his Alawite sect of Shiite Islam, and territory the regime will not easily give up.

Arab leaders called Wednesday for a political solution to the conflict in Syria, overlooking Saudi-backed demands for greater military support for rebel forces to tip the balance in the war.

They were united, however, after a two-day summit in Kuwait in siding with the Palestinians in refusing to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, a flashpoint issue threatening to derail U.S.-brokered peace talks.

The Israeli army staged at dawn on Wednesday military drills in the occupied Shebaa Farms and boosted security along the border with Lebanon.

According to the state-run National News Agency, Israeli drones flew over the Shebaa farms during the military exercises.

The regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad informed its allies in Lebanon the need to prevent any attempts to stage the presidential elections in the country, the Saudi Okaz newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The newspaper quoted sources close to the regime as saying that “carrying out the presidential elections in Lebanon should be linked to the run for presidency in the neighboring country.”

Tensions are running high on the Turkey-Syria border following the shooting down of a Syrian warplane by Turkish forces at the weekend, the Turkish army said Tuesday.

The military reported a dozen incidents involving its aircraft and Syrian anti-aircraft defenses on Monday alone.

Swedish Migration Minister Tobias Billstroem warned Tuesday that European Union countries must accept more refugees, particularly from Syria, and that failing to do so could have disastrous consequences.

"We have a situation where member states like Sweden, France and Germany are doing more and more of the job," he told Agence France Presse, commenting on new EU asylum figures.

Syrian rebels seized a Mediterranean coastal village Tuesday as they pushed to consolidate their presence in a key regime bastion near the Turkish border, a monitoring group said.

The government denied the claim, saying fighting was still underway in the area.

Syria's opposition called for "sophisticated" arms at an Arab summit in Kuwait Tuesday while Saudi Arabia stressed the need for a change in military balance to "end the impasse".

U.N. peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, however, insisted on the need for a "political solution" to the three-year conflict, urging an "end to the supply of arms to all parties".

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi urged on Tuesday the rival parties to dissociate Lebanon from the regional and international turmoils, demanding officials to end the chaos in the country.

“The political, economic, social and security chaos in the country should end,” al-Rahi said in a sermon during a mass he held in Bkirki on the occasion of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

A Syrian woman set herself on fire on Tuesday in front of the United Nations aid center in the northern city of Tripoli in protest against the poor aid being presented to Syrian refugees in Lebanon, reported Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3).

The woman has been identified as Mariam Khawli, 40.