Two Syrian boys were brought to a hospital in Israel overnight, both suffering from massive shrapnel wounds sustained during the bloody civil war which has gripped their homeland, a spokesman said on Wednesday.

According to a statement released by Ziv hospital in the town of Safed, one was a 15-year-old boy in serious condition who was suffering from multiple injuries all over his body.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has called Qatar's young new emir and voiced hope for further cooperation with the increasingly active nation, an official said Wednesday.

Kerry, who is on a regional tour aimed at coordinating support for Syria's rebels, spoke by telephone Tuesday with the new emir, 33-year-old Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and his father Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.

Outgoing U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said Tuesday the U.N. Security Council's failure to take action to stop the conflict in Syria is "a moral and strategic disgrace that history will judge harshly."

She told reporters at her final news conference Tuesday before starting her new job as U.S. national security adviser on July 1 that the paralysis of the U.N.'s most important body is "a stain" on the council that she will regret forever — even though she maintained that the U.S. and its allies were not responsible.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will go to the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, adding a stop to his marathon tour aimed at coordinating support for Syria's rebels, an official said.

Kerry, who arrived in Kuwait on Tuesday evening after a lightning stop in Saudi Arabia, will visit Abu Dhabi to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahayan, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet next week to discuss the situation in war-torn Syria, the United Nations said Tuesday.

"The meeting has been informed that Minister Lavrov and Secretary Kerry would be meeting next week," the U.N. said in a statement following talks in Geneva between senior U.S., Russian and U.N. diplomats aimed at paving the way for a new international peace conference on Syria.

Bahrain announced on Tuesday the arrest of nine Shiites it said are linked to Iran and that were planning to attack a prison to facilitate a jail break.

The interior ministry said arms, ammunition and a plan for attacking the prison were seized.

Two wounded Syrians were admitted to Israel overnight for hospital treatment, a military spokeswoman told Agence France Presse on Tuesday, the latest in several dozen cases to be allowed across.

The two men entered Israel via the Quneitra crossing on the Golan Heights. There was no word on whether they were civilians, rebel fighters or government troops.

Independent MP Nouri Bousahmein, a member of Libya's Berber minority, was elected on Tuesday as head of the General National Congress (GNC), making him the country's interim leader.

Bousahmein, the first Berber to hold such a senior post in Libya, replaces Mohammed Megaryef, who stepped down after a law was adopted banning from politics those who served under ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday pressed for global action to end Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime, telling U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that the civil war had turned into "genocide".

Kerry met leaders of the Sunni Arab monarchy as part of a regional tour in which he has called for greater support for Syria's rebels but stressed that the United States ultimately wanted a political solution that includes all sides.

Two wounded Syrians were admitted to Israel overnight for hospital treatment, a military spokeswoman told AFP on Tuesday, the latest in several dozen cases to be allowed across.

The two men entered Israel via the Quneitra crossing on the Golan Heights. There was no word on whether they were civilians, rebel fighters or government troops.