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.

The United States on Tuesday accused Iran of setting up a pro-regime militia in Syria as Washington increasingly ties the crisis there to interference by its long-time foe Tehran.

Western powers are already locked in a diplomatic stand-off with Iran over what they say is its plan to develop nuclear weapons, and tensions are high between U.S. and Iranian patrols in the oil shipping lanes of the Gulf.

The new defense minister appointed by Egypt's Islamist president has pledged to uphold the strong military ties between Cairo and Washington, Pentagon chief Leon Panetta said Tuesday.

In a surprise move Sunday, President Mohamed Morsi retired Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi -- head of the military council that assumed power after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak -- and replaced him with Abdel Fattah al-Sissi.

Israel has not yet decided whether to strike Iran over its suspect nuclear program, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday, as Tehran dismissed the threat of an imminent attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak in recent days had stiffened their rhetoric on Iran, suggesting they were thinking more seriously of military action against Tehran's nuclear facilities.

An emergency summit of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) began late Tuesday with a proposal to suspend conflict-wracked Syria, a move strongly opposed by Iran.

A draft final statement obtained by Agence France Presse said the summit "approves the suspension of Syria's membership," a measure recommended by a preparatory ministerial meeting held Monday in the western Saudi city of Jeddah.