Syrian opposition leaders are to address an annual summit of the Arab League for the first time in Qatar on Tuesday, but the bloc's members remain divided over whether to give them Damascus's vacant seat.

The Qatari hosts are vocal champions of the rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's regime and said leaders of the armed opposition would definitely be joining Arab heads of state in Doha.

The U.N. Security Council on Friday set aside differences on the Syria conflict to agree a rare statement condemning a suicide bomb attack on a Damascus mosque without blaming it on any side.

"The Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist attack in a mosque in Damascus," the statement said. More than 45 people, including a senior pro-government cleric, were killed in Thursday's blast.

Britain and France pressed reluctant European Union partners to supply weapons to Syria's rebels at talks Friday between the bloc's foreign ministers that appeared headed for stalemate.

As unseasonal wintry weather delayed the start of a likely showdown over the contested Franco-British push, ministers headed into Dublin's historic castle split over the consequences of lifting a nearly two-year-old embargo to tip the balance on the ground in favor of the insurgents.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in Jordan are stretching the kingdom's meager water resources "to the limit," two British aid agencies warned on Friday, calling for international help.

"The Syrian refugee emergency is highlighting one of Jordan's most pressing problems -- water," said Christian Snoad of Oxfam, in a joint statement with the British Red Cross.

The U.N. on Friday lamented the escalating violence in Syria and extended a probe into widespread human rights violations in the war-torn country.

The 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council adopted with an overwhelming majority a resolution extending the mandate of a commission of inquiry created by the council in 2011 for another year.

Syria's key regional ally Iran on Friday condemned a suicide mosque bombing in Damascus that killed the country's top Sunni Muslim cleric and at least 40 other people, Fars news agency reported.

"The foreign ministry condemns the martyrdom of Sheikh Mohamed Saeed al-Bouti, who was killed while in the company of his pupils by the savage action of extremist groups," the ministry was quoted as saying.

Syria's President Bashar Assad on Friday condemned a deadly attack on a mosque that killed more than 40 people including a top pro-regime cleric, vowing that Syria would be "cleansed" of extremism.

"I present my condolences to the Syrian people for the martyrdom of Sheikh Mohamed Saeed al-Bouti, a great figure in Syria and the Islamic world," he said in a statement issued by the presidency overnight.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel lamented on Friday that Lebanon's political leaders haven't yet taken the bold step to lift the political cover off gunmen in the northern city of Tripoli.

In remarks to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3), Charbel said: “The Tripoli situation is still under control but unacceptable.”

Dai al-Islam al-Shahhal, a prominent Salafist leader in Lebanon, revealed Friday that he is capable of issuing a fatwa for jihad to send thousands of fighters to Syria.

“If I wanted to back the Syrian revolution with men, I could have issued a Jihad fatwa to send thousands of men from Lebanon and outside to fight in Syria,” al-Shahhal told al-Joumhouria newspaper.

Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged U.S. President Barack Obama on the eve of his Jordan visit to press King Abdullah II to accept Palestinian refugees and other asylum seekers at the Syrian border.

"Jordan is routinely and unlawfully rejecting Palestinian refugees, single males, and undocumented people seeking asylum at its border with Syria," HRW and Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Clinic said in a statement.