President Obama says he is “concerned” about the growing role of Lebanese Hezbollah in the Syrian Civil War.  The Shi’a Muslim Militant group took heavier than expected casualties over the weekend, revealing its commitment to the Damascus government.

About 30 Hezbollah fighters were killed on Sunday, along with 20 Syrian troops and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.  This happened in the fight to retake the strategically important rebel stronghold of Qusair, near the Lebanon border.

President Obama phoned his Lebanese counterpart Michel Suleiman and “stressed his concern about Hezbollah's active and growing role in Syria, fighting on behalf of the Assad regime, which is counter to the Lebanese government's policies.” 

However, Suleiman doesn’t have a lot of resources to control Hezbollah, which is believed to be acting as proxies for Iran. 

And the new developments are feeding fears of the Syrian conflict spilling over into neighboring countries, especially Sunni Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, which do not want Tehran expanding its influence.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was "preparing for every scenario" in Syria and held out the prospect of more Israeli strikes on Syria to stop Hezbollah and other opponents of Israel obtaining advanced weapons.