France and Germany said Tuesday that a new Russian draft resolution at the U.N. Security Council on the Syrian crisis was inadequate, as Britain said it was unlikely Russia would let the U.N. body take any serious action.

It was "very far from responding to the reality of the situation in Syria", where President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on protests has left thousands of people dead, French foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said.

Prominent opposition figure and rights activist Najati Tayyara, arrested last May for having criticized President Bashar al-Assad's regime, was released on Tuesday, a rights group said.

"The Syrian authorities have just released him and his lawyer has just spoken to him on the telephone," said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Turkey summoned Iraq's ambassador to Ankara to protest claims that it has been meddling in its neighbor’s affairs by voicing concerns about a domestic political crisis, a diplomatic source said Tuesday.

Feridun Sinirlioglu, the foreign ministry's undersecretary, told the Iraqi envoy Monday that the accusation of interference was "unacceptable" and Turkey had a legitimate right to be concerned about events on the other side of its borders.

A Kuwaiti court on Tuesday sentenced two police officers to life in prison and handed three others 16-year jail terms for torturing a man to death last year.

The criminal court also issued prison sentences to another two other officers, one to 15 years in jail and another for two years.

Syria's government on Tuesday rejected the possibility of the Arab League deploying troops in the unrest-swept country as suggested by the emir of Qatar and said its people would confront such action.

"Syria rejects the statements of officials of Qatar on sending Arab troops to worsen the crisis... and pave the way for foreign intervention," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

At least 32 people were killed in Syria on Tuesday, including four army deserters, as a blast killed eight civilians in the northwestern province of Idlib, activists and a human rights group said.

"Eight civilians were killed by a device that exploded as their minibus passed on the road between Idlib and Aleppo," in the north, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, without specifying the identity of the assailants.

Iran has boosted security for all its nuclear workers after one of its scientists was assassinated last week, First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said Tuesday.

"Whoever is active in the nuclear field will be put under special care," Rahimi said in remarks reported by the official IRNA news agency.

Iran on Tuesday warned Saudi Arabia to reconsider its vow to make up for any shortfall in Iranian oil exports under new sanctions, saying Riyadh's pledge to step into the market was unfriendly.

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi issued the warning in an interview with Iran's Arabic language broadcaster al-Alam.

Kuwait has decided to deport stateless people who took part in protests demanding citizenship which turned violent, newspapers reported Tuesday.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Central Agency for Illegal Residents, which deals with the stateless people known as bidoons, chaired by Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmed al-Humud al-Sabah, al-Anbaa newspaper reported.

Gunmen attacked a police checkpoint in Iraq's western desert, close to the Syrian and Jordanian borders, killing five policemen early on Tuesday, security and medical officials said.

The attack took place soon after midnight about 500 kilometers west of Baghdad in mostly Sunni Anbar province, according to a police officer in Ramadi, the provincial capital.