Revulsion over photos of child victims of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria left the White House facing new calls for a firm response Thursday.

Republican Senator John McCain warned President Barack Obama had given President Bashar Assad a "green light" to commit atrocities by failing to use military force to respond to previous attacks.

Some 200 Moroccans, including dozens of children, protested outside parliament in Rabat on Thursday demanding the release from prison of Islamist relatives they say are innocent.

"Ten years have passed. How many more?" read one of the placards held up by protesters, who waved Islamist flags and chanted "Allahu akbar!" (God is greatest).

A senior Palestinian official accused Israel on Thursday of preventing the United States from taking part in peace talks, two days after a new round of meetings.

"The American side has not participated in any meetings until now between Israel (and the Palestinians)," Palestine Liberation Organization secretary general Yasser Abed Rabbo told Voice of Palestine radio.

Russia said Thursday that a U.N. weapons inspection team in Syria must get the government's approval to visit the site of an alleged chemical attack near Damascus that the opposition says killed hundreds.

The Russian foreign ministry's official spokesman said the site of Wednesday's incident was controlled by rebels and that security concerns must also be addressed before any U.N. inspections are made.

Egypt's ousted president Hosni Mubarak was flown from prison by helicopter to a military hospital Thursday after he was cleared for conditional release while standing trial, an interior ministry general told Agence France Presse.

Mubarak will be held under house arrest at the Cairo hospital on the orders of the prime minister, who has been granted the power to order arrests during the current state of emergency.

Tunisia's ruling Islamist party indicated Thursday it was ready to negotiate with the opposition on the formation of an apolitical government, in order to end a month-long political crisis.

The announcement of what would be a key concession that Ennahda has until now resisted came after its leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, met Houcine Abassi, the secretary general of the powerful UGTT union, which has been mediating between the rival factions.

Syrian government forces pressed on with a military offensive in eastern Damascus on Thursday, bombing rebel-held suburbs where the opposition said the regime had killed over 100 people the day before in a chemical weapons attack.

The government has denied allegations it used chemical weapons in artillery barrages on the area known as eastern Ghouta on Wednesday as "absolutely baseless."

Tunisia's powerful UGTT trade union confederation resumed mediation efforts on Wednesday to try to end weeks of deadlock between the ruling Islamist Ennahda party and the mainly secular opposition.

The talks, which again showed no sign of progress, come amid turmoil and bloodshed in nearby Egypt, following the army's ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi last month, and with anti-government protests planned across Tunisia this weekend.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Thursday a "red line was crossed" in Syria and called for international action following reports of a massacre involving chemical weapons.

"We call on the international community in this situation where the red line was crossed long ago to intervene as soon as possible," he said in Berlin after talks with his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle.

Egyptian authorities must protect churches and Christian homes and businesses from attack and Islamists must stop inciting sectarian violence, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

The group said it had documented attacks on 42 churches and dozens of Christian institutions, schools and homes, as well as Christian-owned businesses across the country.