Syria's oil minister claimed the severe fuel crisis that has hit his country is the result of Western sanctions, and also allegedly because oil fields in eastern regions have fallen under control of American troops and U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters.

The minister, Bassam Tomeh told state TV in an interview aired late Wednesday that oil supplies have been delayed because of the situation. "We have stocks that we are trying to manage in a rational way," he said, without elaborating.

Russia said on Thursday it would be a "mistake" to think lasting peace in the Middle East could be secured without resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The head of Libya's UN-recognised Government of National Accord said Wednesday he planned to step down within six weeks as part of efforts to broker a peace agreement.

Libya has endured almost a decade of violent chaos since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed veteran dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has said only an Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories can bring peace to the Middle East, as the UAE and Bahrain signed normalization accords with Israel.

Israel bombed Gaza on Wednesday morning after militants fired rockets through the night, overshadowing the signing of landmark normalization deals with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in Washington.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain will be responsible for any 'consequences' resulting from their normalization of relations with Tehran's arch-foe Israel.

At least two people were wounded in Israel by rocket fire from Hamas-controlled Gaza on Tuesday, emergency services said, as Israel signed normalization deals with Bahrain and the UAE.

Dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered Tuesday in front of the White House to protest the signing of historic accords between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. 

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that "five or six" more Arab countries were poised to agree to normalize relations with Israel, in line with the landmark accords struck between the Jewish state and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Declaring "the dawn of a new Middle East," President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed historic diplomatic pacts with Israel and two Gulf Arab nations that he hopes will lead to a new order in the Mideast and cast him as a peacemaker at the height of his reelection campaign.

Hundreds of people massed on the sun-washed South Lawn to witness the signing of agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. The bilateral agreements formalize the normalization of the Jewish state's already thawing relations with the two Arab nations in line with their common opposition to Iran and its aggression in the region.