The United States ambassador to Syria will return to the country on Tuesday after he left his post more than a month ago due to security concerns.

U.S. State Department officials say Ambassador Robert Ford has completed his consultations in Washington and will return to Damascus later Tuesday. Ford was called back to Washington in late October after he received death threats for meeting with Syrian opposition leaders and showing support for protesters.

U.S. officials say Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is meeting with seven exiled Syrian dissidents in Geneva on Tuesday in a gesture of support for the opposition movement.

The United States has been trying to isolate the government of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in response to its crackdown on political dissent that has killed more than 4,000 people since March.

Meanwhile, the Assad government received words of support from Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday.

In a rare public appearance in Beirut, Nasrallah lashed out against the United States, accusing it of seeking to destroy Syria. He said he is in favor of Mr. Assad's plans for reform. Nasrallah made the comments during a speech marking the Shi'ite holy day of Ashura.

Syrian rights activists say Assad loyalists kidnapped and killed 34 civilians in the central city of Homs on Monday. Homs has been a focal point of protests against Mr. Assad's 11-year autocratic rule. The activists say witnesses reported seeing the bodies of the hostages in a square in a pro-Assad part of the city.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says army defectors killed four pro-Assad security personnel in the southern province of Daraa. One member of the “Free Syrian Army” says the time has come to fight back, after a nine-month crackdown on protesters.

The Syrian government proposed on Monday new conditions to allow observers into the country to monitor Syrian compliance with a pledge to stop cracking down on the pro-democracy uprising. The Arab League said it is studying a Syrian proposal that was received on Monday and contains “new” conditions that the regional bloc had not heard before.