A Syrian envoy in Beijing for talks with Chinese officials has praised her host's attitude to her country, contrasting it with that of Western powers, in comments published Thursday.

China has joined Russia to repeatedly use their vetoes to scuttle U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at tackling the conflict in Syria, putting them at loggerheads with fellow permanent members the United States, Britain and France.

The 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation suspended Syria in a meeting attended by its staunch ally Iran, in a move hailed early Thursday by the United States as one that sends "a strong message" to Damascus.

A statement issued at the end of an OIC summit in the Saudi holy city of Mecca said participants had agreed on "the need to end immediately the acts of violence in Syria and to suspend that country from the OIC."

A Syrian airstrike on a rebel bastion in the north Wednesday flattened a string of houses and killed 23 people including children, activists said, leaving residents wailing in grief and anger.

"Bashar did this. God help us, these animals will kill us all," said one man, hoisting a bloodied arm from a pile of body parts on the pavement outside the hospital in the town of Aazaz after the bombardment.

Russia said Wednesday it would not let Western powers "sabotage" a political transition accord to end the escalating conflict in Syria that was reached in Geneva at the end of June.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Western states of fomenting violence by openly supporting the armed opposition and said Russia expected a formal answer within a matter of days on whether they backed the accord.

Israel is prepared for a 30-day war on multiple fronts should it decide to strike Iran, and is "ready as never before" for such a clash, the outgoing home front defense minister said Wednesday.

In an interview with the Maariv newspaper, Matan Vilnai said Israel was ready to face the consequences of a clash with Iran that could be sparked if the Jewish state decides to launch a strike against Tehran's nuclear program.

Yemeni security forces arrested Wednesday a leading southern separatist on his arrival in Aden after spending several years in self-imposed exile, an official and an activist said.

Former ambassador Ahmed al-Hassani, who has lived in Britain since 2006 as a political refugee, was arrested at dawn at the airport after arriving onboard a flight from Beirut, said the official requesting anonymity.

Israel's foreign ministry on Wednesday condemned a decision by the EU to effectively label parts of an Israeli town as a settlement in a new list of locales not entitled to European tariff exemptions.

"For anyone who deals in reality, there is not the slightest doubt that the Modiin, Maccabim and Reut localities are an integral part of Israel, and their future is not in question," the ministry said in a statement.

A Saudi daily insisted Wednesday it had held an interview with Russian Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, following denials from Moscow that he had ever spoken to the newspaper.

Al-Watan posted online a recording which it said proved the interview, in which Bogdanov purportedly said Syrian President Bashar Assad's influential brother Maher lost both his legs in a bomb attack, had indeed taken place.

Syrian security forces stormed at least two districts of Damascus in the hunt for rebels, in one area using tanks and army vehicles, according to activists on Wednesday.

It is the third straight day security forces have swept central areas of the capital, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A massive bomb blast rocked the heart of Damascus on Wednesday, setting off a fireball near the hotel used by the U.N. observer mission in Syria in an attack claimed by the rebel Free Syrian Army.

The blast, which tore a huge hole out of a petrol tanker near the Dama Rose hotel, wounded at least five people, a military officer at the scene said, while Syria's deputy foreign minister said U.N. staff were unscathed.