Iran on Monday said it was readying ballistic missile war games simulating a counter-attack against U.S. or Israeli targets in the region in the event of air strikes on its nuclear facilities.

The three-day drill in Iran's central desert region was starting days after the European Union and the United States imposed severe new sanctions, and on the eve of another round of negotiations with world powers seeking to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon spokesperson Andrea Tenenti denied on Monday that the dispute which took place during the weekend between several Irish contingent troops and civilians, is linked to the incidents that targeted the UNIFIL in the past few years.

“It’s an individual incident, the contingent wasn’t attacked or subjected to any violence,” Tenenti told the pan-Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat.

Both official media and an opposition group on Sunday branded as a failure a world powers deal on a transition plan for Syria a day after at least 120 people were reported killed in violence nationwide.

World powers meeting in Geneva on Saturday agreed a transition plan that could include current regime members, but the West did not see any role for President Bashar Assad in a new unity government.

Both official media and an opposition group on Sunday branded as a failure a world powers deal on a transition plan for Syria a day after more than 80 people were reported killed in violence nationwide.

World powers meeting in Geneva on Saturday agreed a transition plan that could include current regime members, but the West did not see any role for President Bashar Assad in a new unity government.

The Palestine Liberation Organization called on Saturday for an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on Israel's policy of building Jewish settlements on Palestinian land.

"The PLO executive committee has decided to call for the Security Council to convene an urgent meeting to discuss settlements," the committee said after a meeting in the West Bank political capital of Ramallah.

International envoy Kofi Annan has proposed setting up a Syrian transitional authority that could include followers of President Bashar Assad and opposition members in a bid to end the country's war, diplomats said Wednesday.

Russia and the other major powers -- the United States, Britain, France and China -- back the plan, which will be discussed at a meeting of foreign ministers Annan has convened in Geneva on Saturday, they said.

New EU sanctions to come into effect against Iran on Sunday will hurt negotiations over the country's nuclear program, foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said.

"Actions that are against the agreements between Iran and the P5+1 will have a negative impact on reaching an acceptable resolution," he told reporters on Tuesday in his regular weekly briefing.

Turkey has told the U.N. Security Council that Syria's downing of one of its fighter jets poses a "serious threat to peace and security” after Damascus insisted the plane had violated its airspace.

Turkey, in a letter to the United Nations Security Council and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, said Monday its plane had gone down in international airspace.

The United States said Monday that the U.N. Security Council has been a "colossal failure" in protecting Syrian civilians and made a new demand for sanctions against President Bashar Assad.

The council, which is divided on how to end the conflict, "continues to stand by, rather than to stand up," Susan Rice, U.S. envoy to the United Nations, told the 15-nation body.

The 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation's executive committee has recommended suspending Syria's membership in the pan-Muslim grouping, it said in a statement on Monday.

The committee has "recommended to the meeting of the council of foreign ministers to be held in Djibouti the suspension of Syria's membership in the OIC in light of the bloody events taking place in the country," said the statement that followed a meeting in Saudi Arabia late Sunday.