China Saturday accused countries that oppose its position on Syria of undermining attempts to find a political solution to the conflict, after voting against a new U.N. resolution on the crisis.

The U.N. General Assembly on Friday overwhelmingly passed a resolution slamming the Security Council's failure to take strong steps to end the fighting, which U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon said has become a "proxy war".

Defected Syrian general Manaf Tlass held talks with Turkish foreign ministry officials during a surprise visit to Ankara, a Turkish diplomat told Agence France Presse on Saturday.

Tlass, whose defection last month was hailed in the West as a major blow for Syrian President Bashar Assad, visited Ankara "at his own request" and held talks at the foreign ministry on Friday, the diplomat said.

Iran has fired an upgraded version of its Fateh-110 short-range ballistic missile in a "successful" test of its ability to hit stationary land or sea targets, Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Saturday, according to state television.

Vahidi said the missile now has a range of "more than 300 kilometers" (190 miles) and can be fired at "targets in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman as well as land-based targets," the IRIB channel reported.

A Saudi policeman and an armed protester were killed in overnight clashes in the Eastern Province, the interior ministry announced on Saturday.

"A security patrol came under heavy gunfire from four armed rioters on motorbikes" in Qatif, ministry spokesman Mansur al-Turki was quoted by official news agency SPA as saying.

Syrian television presenter Mohammed al-Saeed, kidnapped from his Damascus home in mid-July, has been executed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday.

"The television presenter, a well-known figure on state TV, has been executed, and the al-Nusra Front has claimed responsibility for the killing," the Observatory's Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse.

A fire that broke out at Iran's biggest petrochemical plant killed at least one person and injured 15 others before it was put out, Iranian media reported on Saturday.

The blaze at the Bandar Imam petrochemical complex, in the southwestern city of Mahshahr, occurred on Friday and was caused by a gas leak in a feeding line, according to the Shana news agency belonging to Iran's oil ministry.

At least 13 people were killed across Syria on Saturday as fierce fighting raged in Aleppo and Damascus, the country's two biggest cities, a rights group said.

Overnight in Aleppo, rebel forces withdrew from the district of Izaa where the state television building is situated, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Iran is being hit by a "war" on its economy, according to officials facing tightened U.S. sanctions and renewed Israeli threats of imminent military action over Tehran's nuclear activities.

"This is war," Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, the hardline chief of Iran's influential Guardians Council, said as he led Friday prayers in Tehran.

A U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning Syria's use of heavy weapons and the Security Council's failure to act means the Syrian regime has lost legitimacy, the head of the opposition Syrian National Council said on Friday.

"This vote confirms that this regime lost its legitimacy and that the international community does not believe in its legitimacy anymore," Abdel Basset Sayda told a news conference in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, region referring to a resolution passed earlier on Friday.

Russia expressed serious concern Friday over attempts by Syrian rebels to gain control of Aleppo and condemned foreign nations for providing the armed opposition with military supplies.

The foreign ministry said the latest evidence from Syria's second city showed that "illegal armed formations" were trying to make Aleppo into a base for future attacks on Syrian President Bashar Assad's troops.