Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday accused the Syrian opposition of seeking to disrupt plans for a peace conference by putting forward unrealistic demands.

"We are under the impression that the National Coalition and its regional sponsors are doing everything so as not to allow the start of the political process and achieve military intervention in Syria through any means possible," Lavrov told reporters.

Israel's decision to build 1,000 new settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem is "destroying" efforts by Washington's top diplomat to revive the peace process, a Palestinian official said on Thursday.

"We consider the recent decision of the Israeli government to build a thousand homes in east Jerusalem as effectively destroying the efforts of (U.S. Secretary of State) Kerry," top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told Agence France Presse.

A homemade bomb planted by "terrorists" has exploded in a Shiite village outside the Bahraini capital, wounding seven policemen on patrol, police said on Thursday.

Among them, one was seriously hurt and two others moderately by the blast in Bani Jamra village on Wednesday night, said Northern Province police chief Ibrahim al-Sheeb.

An Australian has been jailed for four-and-a-half years in Saudi Arabia on terrorism-related offences, with his lawyer vowing to appeal what he claims was an unfair trial.

Shayden Thorne has been held in a jail outside Riyadh for almost 18 months, reportedly after a laptop, which his family says he borrowed from a mosque, was allegedly found to have terrorist material on it.

The U.S. State Department insisted Wednesday that its Syria envoy Robert Ford was keeping his post, including talks with the opposition, despite reports of his impending resignation.

"Ambassador Ford is in Istanbul right now and continues (Secretary of State John Kerry's) urgent work on behalf of the Syrian people every single day," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.

Major powers have not agreed on who will take part in an international conference on the Syrian conflict or when it will be held, U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday.

Amid growing doubts that a conference can be organized in June, Ban told reporters "active consultations" were still being held, while U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said the U.S. government's "entire foreign policy apparatus" was working to hold the meeting.

Israel is preparing to build more than 1,000 new settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem as the United States strives to revive dormant Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, an NGO said late Wednesday.

Danny Seidemann, director of Jerusalem settlement watchdog Terrestrial Jerusalem, told Agence France Presse that contracts for 300 homes in the northeastern settlement of Ramot were signed and another 797 plots were to be offered for sale in the southern Jerusalem settlement of Gilo, near the West bank city of Jerusalem.

Embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad, who is facing a two-year rebellion against his rule, will run for a third term in 2014 if the people want him to, his foreign minister said on Wednesday.

"Will President Assad run for a third term or won't he, that will depend on conditions in 2014 and the will of the people," Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told the Beirut-based Arab news channel Mayadeen, which is close to Syria and its ally Iran.

Attacks including a bombing against a bridal party killed 28 people and wounded dozens in Iraq on Wednesday, security and medical officials said.

The violence is the latest in a wave of unrest that has killed more than 570 people so far in May and raised fears of a return to all-out sectarian conflict.

Several U.N. experts on Wednesday criticized Iran's decision to bar women from running in upcoming elections, saying the move violated international law.

"This mass disqualification including that of women wishing to stand in the presidential elections is discriminatory and violates the fundamental right to political participation," U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran Ahmed Shaheed said in a statement.