Weeks before the U.S. pullout, Iraq's prime minister confidently predicts that his country will achieve stability and remain independent of its giant neighbor Iran even without an American troop presence.

Nouri al-Maliki also warned on Saturday of civil war in Iran's ally Syria if Bashar Assad falls — a view that puts him closer to Tehran's position and at odds with Washington. The foreign policy pronouncement indicates that Iraq is emerging from the shadows of U.S. influence in a way unforeseen when U.S.-led forces invaded eight years ago to topple Saddam Hussein.

Syria on Saturday condemned a U.N. vote on rights violations by the country's security forces as "unjust," and said it was based on false information from the regime's foes.

The U.N. Human Rights Council resolution passed in a vote on Friday was "unjust and "prepared in advance by parties hostile to Syria," the foreign ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SANA.

The leader of the main opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) appealed Saturday for a U.N. Security Council resolution to end the regime's deadly crackdown on civilians, while ruling out military intervention.

"What we will seek from the Security Council, above all, are mechanisms for the protection of the innocent civilians," Burhan Ghaliun told journalists on the sidelines of a transitional democracy forum in Sofia.

Eleven civilians were among 23 people killed in Syria on Saturday, a day after the U.N. Human Rights Council urged tougher action against Damascus and condemned its "gross violations" of human rights.

The fresh bloodletting came despite the U.N. resolution which the Syrian foreign ministry dismissed as "unjust" and "politically motivated" by enemies of the embattled regime of President Bashar Assad.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad threatens to "fan the flames" of sectarian conflict not only in Syria but in the wider region, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said in talks with the Turkish president, a U.S. official said Saturday.

"Assad and his regime are the source of instability in Syria now and pose the greatest danger to fanning flames of sectarian conflict not only in Syria but beyond," Biden told Abdullah Gul when they met Friday, the senior official told reporters.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman is expected to visit Lebanon next week where he will hold talks with a number of Lebanese officials on the latest regional developments.

Al-Joumhouriya newspaper reported on Saturday that he will stress the need for Lebanon to respect the international sanctions against Syria, warning against any Syrian attempts to avoid these sanctions.

Russia on Friday lambasted the U.N. Human Rights Council's findings of "gross violations" by Syria as "unacceptable" and warned against using them as a pretext for military action.

"The positions (adopted) in the document, which include the veiled hint of the possibility of foreign military intervention under the pretext of defending the Syrian people, are unacceptable to the Russian side," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday slammed "gross violations" in Syria following evidence security forces murdered and tortured dissidents including children, as eleven more people reportedly died.

Council members in Geneva overwhelmingly passed a resolution "strongly condemning the continued widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities" and referred a report on the abuses to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.

Al-Watan, Syria's only privately-owned political daily, was added to a European Union sanctions blacklist on Friday for its alleged role in a state crackdown on dissent.

In an expanded blacklist of companies and individuals, the EU included Al-Watan and website Sham Press, also privately owned, but did not add state-run newspapers Tishrin, Al-Baath and Al-Thawra.

LF leader Samir Geagea criticized on Friday Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s speech on the Special Tribunal for Lebanon on Thursday, accusing him of taking contradictory positions on the matter.

He asked before reporters at Maarab: “If the STL were an American-Israeli product as you claim, then wouldn’t it have been better for your majority to resign and force Premier Najib Miqati to step down as well in order to prevent the tribunal funding?”