Israel is preparing to receive Syrian Alawite refugees on the occupied Golan Heights when the regime of President Bashar Assad collapses, Israel's army chief of staff Benny Gantz said on Tuesday.

"On the day the Assad regime falls, it is expected to harm the Alawite clan. We are preparing to receive Alawite refugees on the Golan Heights," he told MPs at the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and defense, in remarks communicated by a spokesman

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on political and religious leaders in Iraq on Tuesday to prevent sectarian tensions in the country.

"The last thing we want to see in Iraq is a fight between brothers," Erdogan said in televised remarks in a weekly address to his lawmakers in parliament.

Syria's top Muslim cleric called on rebels to lay down their arms while a Christian counterpart hit out at Western sanctions, in sermons aired by state television on Tuesday.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Ahmed Badreddin Hassoun and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Luka al-Khouri were both speaking at an inter-faith memorial service in the capital's Holy Cross Church for 26 people killed in a suicide bombing in Damascus on Friday.

A Tunisian man who set himself on fire to protest unemployment has died, a hospital official said Tuesday, a year almost to the day after a fruit-seller's self-immolation sparked the Arab Spring.

Ammar Gharsalla, a 48-year-old father of three, had been among protestors staging a sit-in outside the Gafsa government office last Thursday to highlight the unemployment problem in the region.

Syrian President Bashar Assad on Tuesday accused foreign parties of seeking to destabilize Syria but stressed that he would not step down over increased demonstrations against him.

"We will declare victory soon," he said in a speech at Damascus University broadcast live on state television.

Kuwait said Tuesday it will not allow stateless people to stage any more demonstrations after having promised to resolve their demands for citizenship.

"The ministry will not allow any processions, gatherings or demonstrations (by stateless), regardless of their nature or aims," the interior ministry said in a statement.

The Israeli parliament passed tough new legislation targeting illegal immigration early on Tuesday, giving authorities powers to detain migrants for up to three years without charge.

The legislation, an amendment to a 1954 law originally intended to deal with Arab militants trying to infiltrate the Jewish state, was passed by 37 votes to eight.

Bomb attacks in Baghdad and north Iraq on Tuesday killed six people, including an army colonel and three schoolboys, security officials said, a day after a spate of violence left 17 dead.

In the disputed town of Saadiyah, Diyala province, Colonel Hassan Ali was killed when a roadside bomb struck the convoy he was travelling in, Saadiyah mayor Ahmed al-Zarkushi and a provincial security command center official said.

Egyptian telecom magnate Naguib Sawiris faces trial for insulting religion after tweeting a caricature of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse in Islamic garb, an Islamist lawyer who filed a legal complaint against him said Monday.

The court will hear the case against Sawiris, a billionaire Coptic Christian who founded the liberal Free Egyptians party, on January 14, said the lawyer Mamdouh Ismail, a member of the ultra-conservative Al-Gamaa al-Islamiya group.

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad will deliver a speech on Tuesday about the country's "internal matters," in a rare public address by the embattled leader, the official SANA news agency said.

"President Bashar al-Assad will give a speech before midday (1000 GMT) on Tuesday on the internal matters in Syria and developments regarding the situation in the region," SANA reported late Monday.