Former premier Ahmed Shafiq denounced on Thursday as "political" a travel ban which may lead to his arrest upon returning to Egypt, in remarks to the Abu Dhabi-based Arabic Skynews channel.

"This is a political decision that has no legal basis," Shafiq said in an interview conducted in Dubai, adding that he would not hesitate to return to Egypt when "it is necessary."

Etihad Airways, the UAE's national airline, said on Thursday it has suspended flights between Abu Dhabi and Damascus with immediate effect because of the deteriorating security situation in Syria.

"The decision, while not taken lightly, has been made due to the deteriorating security position in Syria," the airline said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was to submit a plan to end Syria's conflict on Thursday based on a halt to violence and formation of a unity government that could include President Bashar Assad, his spokesman said.

Maliki was to outline the initiative, under which a Syrian regime figure would negotiate with opposition groups and elections take place under international and Arab League supervision, in a speech to the Non-Aligned summit in Tehran.

A U.N. official Thursday condemned an Israeli court finding that cleared the army of any blame for the death of U.S. peace activist Rachel Corrie as "a defeat for justice and accountability."

Richard Falk, United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, also called Tuesday's decision in a civil case brought by Corrie's family "a victory for impunity for the Israeli military."

Amnesty International called on Thursday for Iraq to issue a moratorium on its use of the death penalty and commute all death sentences after Baghdad said it had executed 26 people this week.

The executions, which brought to at least 96 the number of people executed this week, were a "significant and worrying increase compared to the previous year" when at least 68 people were executed, the London-based rights group said in a statement.

Sami Fehri, the head of TV channel Ettounsiya which aired a controversial satirical show, turned himself in to the Tunisian attorney general's office on Thursday under an arrest warrant, his lawyer told Agence France Presse.

"Sami just went to the attorney general," said Sonia Dahmani without giving details.

Presidents Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and Egypt's Mohammed Morsi on Thursday discussed the Syrian conflict and their states' severed diplomatic ties in their first-ever bilateral meeting, an official said.

"They emphasized the need to solve the Syria crisis via diplomacy and to prevent foreign intervention," Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian told Iran's Arabic-language broadcaster Al-Alam.

Syrian government troops committed war crimes when they dropped bombs and fired artillery at or near at least 10 bakeries in Aleppo province over the past three weeks, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

"The attacks are at least recklessly indiscriminate and the pattern and number of attacks suggest that government forces have been targeting civilians. Both reckless indiscriminate attacks and deliberately targeting civilians are war crimes," the New York-based watchdog said.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Thursday said he expected the Egyptian army to withdraw its reinforcements from the Sinai Peninsula at the end of its operation to root out Islamist militants.

"They must act against terror and if they have to bring in troops, let them do so. And when it ends, they must take them out," Barak said in an interview with Israel's army radio.

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday reprimanded Iran for "outrageous" comments denying the Holocaust and Israel's right to exist, and called on the two arch-nemeses to drop threats against each other.

"I strongly reject any threat by any (U.N.) member state to destroy another, or outrageous comments to deny historical facts such as the Holocaust," Ban said in a speech before a Non-Aligned summit in Tehran.