Thailand said Thursday that it has recognized a Palestinian state, in a move hailed by Palestinian leaders eager to boost their international standing amid a stalemate with Israel.

Thailand has "officially recognized the state of Palestine and officially informed all permanent and observer missions to the United Nations in New York of this development," a press officer for Thailand's mission said.

A 5.5-magnitude earthquake struck the area of the city of Neyshabour in northeast Iran on Thursday, injuring at least 100 people and damaging several houses, state media reported.

The jolt hit at 1235 GMT, the reports said.

The United Arab Emirates on Thursday welcomed Iran's softer tone on the key Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world's oil passes, saying such attitudes "must prevail."

"I welcome the comments by my Iranian counterpart" Ali Akbar Salehi, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan told reporters.

The Israeli army on Thursday arrested the Palestinian parliamentary speaker, Hamas member Aziz Dweik, in the West Bank, a senior colleague told Agence France Presse.

Dweik was detained by soldiers at a checkpoint in Jabaa, between Ramallah and Jerusalem, as he was traveling to Hebron in the southern West Bank, the leader of the cabinet, Bahaa Youssef, told AFP.

NATO is not planning or even "thinking" of intervening in Syria, the alliance's most senior officer said Thursday, days after a top Russian official said such plans were in the making.

"There is no planning and we are not thinking about an intervention," General Knud Bartels, head of NATO's Military Committee, told a news conference after a two-day meeting of the alliance's military chiefs.

Syrian state news agency SANA on Thursday quoted President Bashar al-Assad as rejecting any foreign intervention.

"The Syrian people are attached to their unity and Arab identity despite all the difficulties, and understand the breadth of the plots against their security and cohesion," he was quoted as telling a group of people opposed to outside intervention.

Top U.S. military chief General Martin Dempsey arrives in Israel late on Thursday evening for talks with Israel's political and military leaders that are expected to focus on Iran's nuclear program.

Dempsey's trip will be his first to Israel since becoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in October.

The deputy head of Libya's National Transitional Council was manhandled by protesters on Thursday in the cradle of the uprising that ousted Moammar Gadhafi last year, witnesses said.

Abdul Hafiz Ghoga, who also serves as official spokesman for the interim government, had to be escorted away after being mobbed by angry students at the University of Ghar Younis in Libya's second-largest city Benghazi, the NTC's wartime base.

Australia urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down on Thursday and said he should be tried before the International Criminal Court for "atrocities" against his people.

"Our view in Australia is that Assad must go," Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters at the French foreign ministry in Paris, at a joint appearance with his counterpart Alain Juppe.

Alawite intellectuals denounced on Thursday what they said are efforts by the Syrian government and parts of the opposition to link their sect to the regime, warning against the consequences of casting a popular uprising for civil rights in a sectarian light.

The group, which includes writers and journalists, denounced the "government's efforts to link the Alawite community and religious minorities to the regime by manipulating the security situation and the media."