EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged Israel on Wednesday to backtrack on its decision to accelerate building of new settlements in response to Palestinian accession to UNESCO.

"I am deeply concerned by the latest Israeli decisions to expedite settlement activities in response to Palestinian accession to UNESCO," Ashton said in a statement.

France on Wednesday condemned Israel's decision to step up settlement building on occupied land and to withhold tax funds from the Palestinians to punish them for joining U.N. cultural body UNESCO.

"France condemns the decision to accelerate the construction of several thousand homes in settlements in east Jerusalem and surroundings," foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero told journalists.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon arrived Wednesday in Libya for a surprise visit, an airport official told Agence France Presse, his first since the uprising that ousted Moammar Gadhafi.

Earlier U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said Ban would spend one day in Tripoli to meet officials in the National Transitional Council who ousted Gadhafi and representatives of civic group.

Turkey has signaled possible support for a buffer zone to protect Syrian civilians if the Assad regime continues its deadly crackdown on protesters.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the Financial Times on Tuesday that Ankara was preparing targeted sanctions against Damascus and left the door open for more drastic steps at a later date, such as a buffer zone or a no fly-zone on Syrian territory.

Iran is on alert and will "punish" any Israeli strike against it, its armed forces chief of staff, General Hassan Firouzabadi, warned Wednesday amid Israeli media speculation of plans for an attack.

"We consider any threat -- even those with low probability and distant -- as a definite threat. We are on full alert," he said, quoted by Fars news agency.

Syria's largest opposition group on Wednesday urged the Arab League to freeze the country's membership and to recognize it as the representative of the "revolution.”

In a statement, the Syrian National Council urged "the Arab League to freeze Syria's membership, ensure the protection of civilians and recognize the SNC as the representative of the Syrian revolution."

Israel on Wednesday successfully tested a rocket-propulsion system from a military base in the center of the country, a defense ministry official said.

"This test firing of the rocket-propulsion system had been planned by the defense establishment a long time ago and was carried out as scheduled," the official told Agence France Presse.

More than 30 people were killed in acts of violence in Syria on Wednesday, including 15 members of the Syrian security forces killed in attacks by army deserters, a rights group said.

Deserters killed 15 members of the security forces in two operations in the flashpoint central province of Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi is to travel to Libya to boost ties with the country's new leaders following an international conference in Turkey Wednesday on Afghanistan, Tehran said.

"After Turkey, the foreign minister will go to Libya to boost bilateral relations," the Iranian government said in a statement on its website, giving no further details.

At least 12 people have been killed and more than 40 others wounded in renewed clashes in Yemen's capital and its second city, medics and activists said on Wednesday, after a brief period of calm.

Armed clashes broke out early Wednesday in the flashpoint city of Taez between government forces and tribesmen who support a mass protest movement calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh's resignation, said activists.