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In St. Petersburg, the US push for a possible punitive strike on Syria in response to the Assad regime's alleged use of chemical weapons is deeply dividing Group of 20 members. But it is also prompting increasingly direct threats from US foes.

CNN reports that Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said: "We believe that the Americans are committing a folly and mistake in Syria and will, accordingly, take the blow and definitely suffer," he said.

The message, aired on state-run Press TV, came as the US said it intercepted an order from Iran to militants in Iraq to attack the US embassy in response to an attack in Syria, according to The Wall Street Journal.

As the paper reports:

It is not clear whether Mr. Khamenei's comments and the reported Iranian intercept are an indication of a change in tone by the Iranian government, which – at least in the offices of President Hassan Rohani – have been taking a less confrontational tone over Syria as of late. On Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that Mr. Rohani has noticeably avoided mention of any military support for Syria. And more broadly, the Iranian government's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has become somewhat muted.

Khamenei's comments came Thursday, the same day Hezbollah issued its first statement on the growing hostility between the West and the Assad regime. It called any military strike "a form of direct and organized terrorism," according to CNN. "These threats fail to conceal the true objectives of this strike aimed at mobilizing Israeli [strength] in the region in an attempt to impose the Western colonial grip," Hezbollah alleged in the statement.

Doubts about US actions are rooted in uncertainty about how the region would be destabilized by a military intervention.

An opinion piece in The Herald of Scotland sums up three key questions today:

Those queries are growing louder as President Barack Obama seeks to get the international community behind a strike on Syria during the last day of the G20. Reporters from NBC in St. Petersburg report that the US hopes to, on the sidelines of the summit, get at least 10 members to align with its position:

But the BBC reports that the US faces an uphill battle, especially from Russia, the G20 host. As reporter Steve Rosenberg writes: "With the US looking increasingly isolated over Syria, Vladimir Putin will be satisfied with the way the G20 is going. He has made no secret of his opposition to US military intervention. From what world leaders have said over the last 24 hours, he will assume Moscow's message has been getting through. From China to the EU to the Vatican, the message is clear: there can be no military solution to the Syrian conflict."