Police clashed with protesters in Cairo Thursday, eve of the the second anniversary of the uprising that overthrew Hosni Mubarak, as they tried to dismantle a security barrier and called for the fall of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, an AFP correspondent said.

A few dozens men and youths tried to dismantle the wall of concrete blocks that blocked a street leading to Tahrir Square, focal point of demonstrations that broke out on January 25, 2010 and led to Mubarak's resignation 18 days later.

A delegation from the U.N. Security Council was due in Sanaa on Sunday to discuss Yemen's bumpy political transition process, Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Qirbi told AFP.

The delegation would meet with Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi and members of the national consensus government, formed after former strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to cede power following a year-long uprising in 2011, Qirbi said.

Britain, Germany and the Netherlands urged their citizens on Thursday to immediately leave Benghazi after London warned of a "specific and imminent threat to Westerners" in the eastern Libyan city.

Britain's warning sparked an angry response from Libya's government, which said there was "no new intelligence" to justify such concerns in the city which was the cradle of the uprising that ousted strongman Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

Syria's embattled President Bashar Assad was Thursday shown on state television attending prayers at a mosque in a northern district of Damascus to mark the Prophet Mohammed's birthday.

The leader was shown in a live broadcast kneeling in al-Afram mosque flanked by Syria's Grand Mufti Ahmad Hassoun, the highest Sunni religious authority in the country, and the religious endowments minister.

Syria is unlikely to see peace in 2013 as the fighting in the strife-torn country edges closer to civil war, Iran's Ambassador to Baghdad Hassan Danaie-Far told AFP on Thursday.

In a grim assessment of nearly two years of conflict in Iraq's western neighbor, Danaie-Far said he believed that not all rebels fighting President Bashar Assad's forces can be called "terrorists," a term broadly used by the Syrian regime for insurgents.

Syrian troops bombarded besieged districts of Homs on Thursday, as clashes raged unabated in the west of the central city for the fifth day a row, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Six rebels were among seven people killed by regime shelling and overnight firefights in the Jobar district, the Britain-based watchdog said.

Syrian authorities have called for "million man prayers" at mosques on Friday to appeal for the re-establishment of security in the country, ravaged by 22 months of bloodshed, a minister said.

"Prayers will be held after Friday services in Syria's mosques with the appeal for a return to security and safety in the homeland," Minister of Religious Endowments Mohammed Abdel Settar said in a statement.

The U.N. and Arab League chiefs on Wednesday pledged "total support" to beleaguered Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi as he struggles to launch political talks to try to end the country's civil war.

Brahimi has been criticized by President Bashar Assad's government and so far has failed to bring key players Russia and the United States in line behind a transition plan that could end the 22-month-old conflict.

Yair Lapid, whose Yesh Atid party took second place in Israel's election, ruled out on Wednesday participating in any bloc to prevent incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu from forming a new coalition government.

"I've heard talk of an (anti-Netanyahu) bloc," Lapid said. "I suggest removing that from the table. There will not be a bloc; that will not happen."

Palestinian leaders will work toward peace with any Israeli government that recognizes the Palestinian state, foreign minister Riyad al-Malki said Wednesday.

But Malki told the U.N. Security Council that actions by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since U.N. members recognized the Palestinian state in November have been "the complete antithesis of the two-state solution."