The United States Wednesday said it had no interest in seeing Syria's President Bashar al-Assad survive simply to preserve regional "stability," hardening its line on what it termed a "grotesque" crackdown on dissent.

Some analysts have speculated that Washington has been wary of directly calling for Assad to quit because of anxiety that security chaos, civil war and a Middle East power vacuum might follow the demise of his regime.

The United Nations condemned on Wednesday the Syrian government's deadly crackdown on protests and called for those responsible to be held "accountable," as tanks stormed the protest hub of Hama.

A Security Council statement agreed after weeks of often-acrimonious talks said the body "condemns the widespread violations of human rights and the use of force against civilians by the Syrian authorities."

Iran's conservative dominated parliament on Wednesday endorsed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's pick, a Revolutionary Guards commander targeted by international sanctions, to head the key oil ministry.

Brigadier General Rostam Qasemi ran the sanctions-hit industrial wing of the elite Guards, Khatam al-Anbiya, which is highly active in the country's oil sector.

The U.N.'s newly appointed human rights investigator to Iran called Wednesday on Tehran to allow him to visit the country to examine alleged rights violations there.

"I issued a written communication to the Iranian authorities to introduce myself and express my interest in visiting the country," Ahmed Shaheed, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on the situation in Iran, said in a statement.

Egypt's ex-president Hosni Mubarak was wheeled into court on a stretcher on Wednesday and denied murder and graft charges, as sporadic clashes erupted outside between his supporters and his foes.

The former strongman, looking pale and dressed in white, pleaded not guilty from a metal-barred cage to the premeditated murder of protesters who took to the streets to topple his regime in an uprising that erupted on January 25.

Successive bombings targeting an alcohol shop on Baghdad's western outskirts killed three policemen at the beginning of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, a security official said on Wednesday.

The blasts, which occurred late on Tuesday in the suburb of Rasala, also left 14 other people wounded, including three policemen, the interior ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in southern Israel on Wednesday, causing no damage or injuries, an Israeli police source told Agence France Presse.

The rocket, which landed in the southern Ashkelon region, comes amid increased fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel.

An Israeli ex-minister known for his close ties to Hosni Mubarak said on Wednesday he had offered the former president medical treatment in Israel during a meeting before the Egyptian uprising.

Speaking to Israeli military radio, Binyamin Ben Eliezer said he made the offer to Mubarak during a meeting attended by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Iraq will open talks with Washington over a military training mission to last beyond a 2011 pullout deadline, Baghdad's Foreign Minister said on Wednesday, after months of U.S. appeals for a decision.

The move is a key first step to reaching an agreement on the future of the U.S. troop presence here, with Admiral Mike Mullen, the top American military officer, warning a day earlier that time was running out to strike a deal.

The U.N. Security Council struggled Tuesday through negotiations on how to respond to the Syria crisis that Russia's envoy warned was veering toward civil war.

Divisions remained among the 15 nations on the wording of any condemnation of President Bashar Assad's crackdown on protests and whether it should be a formal resolution or a less weighty statement.