Former British prime minister Tony Blair was the only person capable of turning George Bush against the 2003 Iraq invasion, ex-United Nations chief Kofi Annan claimed in an interview published Saturday.

Annan argued in an interview published in the Times newspaper that Blair could have changed Bush's mind because of the special relationship between the two nations and the two leaders.

The United States on Friday removed an Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen of Iran, from its blacklist of designated terror groups after years of intense lobbying.

The move, ending a complex legal battle fought through U.S. and European courts, came just days ahead of a U.S. appeals court October 1 deadline forcing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to decide the group's fate.

A Syrian shell crashed Friday into a town on the Turkish side of the border, wounding a Turkish national, as fighting raged in a nearby Syrian town, a local official said.

The shell fired from the Syrian border town of Tall al-Abyad landed in Akcakale in the province of Sanliurfa, smashing into the walls of two buildings and slightly wounding one person, governor Celalettin Guvenc told the Anatolia news agency.

Fourteen U.S. tour operators have canceled cruise ship calls to Tunisia after people furious at a U.S.-made film mocking Islam attacked the American embassy earlier this month, port officials said on Friday.

Operators including Holland American, Royal Caribbean and Disney Cruise scrapped plans to make port calls at La Goulette-Tunis, which had been planned from now until the end of December.

The Syrian regime has moved some chemical weapons to safeguard the material as it wages war against rebel forces but the main storage sites for its arsenal remain secure, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Friday.

"There has been some intelligence that with regards to some of these sites there has been some movement ...in order for the Syrians to better secure the chemicals," Panetta told a joint news conference with his Canadian counterpart.

Jordan has named career diplomat Walid Obeidat as a new ambassador to Israel, filling a position that has been vacant since 2010, a senior official said on Friday.

"The council of ministers has decided to appoint Walid Obeidat as an ambassador to Israel," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A resolution seeking enhanced U.N. observer status for the Palestinians will be submitted later this year after the U.S. presidential election, a Palestinian official said on Friday.

"We have begun consultations on the format of the text that will be presented to the General Assembly to upgrade the Palestinian status to an observer state status," Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, told reporters.

Several Christian families have fled their homes in Egypt's Sinai peninsula after receiving death threats from suspected Islamist militants, officials and residents told AFP on Friday.

Last week, fliers began circulating in the town of Rafah on the Gaza Strip border demanding that its tiny Coptic population move out, residents said.

Israel's threats of military action against Iran over its nuclear programme only serve to boost the defiance of the Islamic republic, the head of the Revolutionary Guards said on Friday.

"The enemies want to stop us continuing our path... but these threats only reinforce our determination to continue in the same direction," General Mohammed Ali Jafari said in a speech to thousands of members of the country's Basij militia, according to the Guards' Sepahnews website.

Jordan has named carrier diplomat Walid Obeidat as a new ambassador to Israel, filling a position that has been vacant since 2010, a senior official said on Friday.

"The council of ministers has decided to appoint Walid Obeidat as an ambassador to Israel," the official told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.