Denmark said Friday it would provide transport and security for the international effort to destroy Syria's arsenal of chemical weapons, after receiving a request from the U.N.

"The U.N. has contacted Denmark about sending a personal protection team for the leaders of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) delegation," Denmark's development minister, Christian Friis Bach, told AFP.

Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri has ordered the disbanding of the main jihadist faction in Syria, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, in an audio message aired on Al-Jazeera Friday.

The tape confirmed a letter put out by Al-Jazeera in June, claimed to have been written by Zawahiri and addressed to the leaders of Al-Qaida factions in both countries.

A series of attacks in Baghdad and central Iraq killed seven people Friday, the latest in a months-long surge in bloodshed that comes in the lead-up to major Shiite Muslim commemorations.

In the deadliest incident, two roadside bombs went off as worshipers were exiting midday prayers at the Imam Ali mosque, a Sunni place of worship, in the west Baghdad neighborhood of Amriyah.

Egypt is to hold parliamentary elections in February or March, two months after the country votes on a new constitution, a foreign ministry official said on Friday.

The official said the schedule, in line with a timetable set out by the country's interim president, was on track.

Russia's foreign and defense ministers will travel to Cairo next week for joint talks with their Egyptian counterparts about weapons sales and political relations, a Russian official said on Friday.

Moscow's foreign ministry spokesman said the "2+2" talks will be held on Wednesday and Thursday and for the first time involve both Russia's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Russia said on Friday that skepticism expressed by the United States about Syria's declaration of its chemical weapons stockpiles to an international watchdog was unfounded.

Washington's U.N. envoy Samantha Power said this week that the United States was concerned about previous "broken promises" made by Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.

The Palestinians said Friday Israel is the only suspect in the "assassination" of Yasser Arafat, a day after Swiss experts said tests suggested he was killed by polonium poisoning.

Arafat, aged 75, died in Paris on November 11, 2004 after falling sick a month earlier. Doctors were unable to specify the cause of death and no post-mortem was carried out.

Israel "utterly rejects" a proposed deal on Iran's nuclear program being hammered out in talks in Geneva, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday as he met Washington's top diplomat.

"This is a very bad deal. Israel utterly rejects it," he told reporters at Ben Gurion airport before beginning talks with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, saying Iran was getting "the deal of the century."

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian near Jerusalem, Israeli police and family members said on Friday, as the United States warned of a third intifada if Middle East peace talks fail.

The police said Anas al-Atrash, 23, was shot dead when he ran at an officer with a knife at a checkpoint between the West Bank and the suburbs of east Jerusalem on Thursday night, in the second such fatality in 12 hours.

Syrian troops have recaptured parts of a military base seized by rebels early this year in fierce fighting near the international airport of second city Aleppo, a monitoring group said Friday.

Heavy fighting erupted at 4:00 am (0200 GMT) around Base 80 outside the northern city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.