A hastily-convened conference in Tehran on Thursday looked like an attempt by the Islamic Republic to forge a coalition of friendly countries opposed to Western and Arab support for rebels determined to end four decades of Assad family rule.

Iran, handed geostrategic windfalls in the past decade by Washington's elimination of two of its main enemies, Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan, now fears the pendulum of regional influence could swing the other way.

Success for the Sunni-led uprising in Syria could have grave implications for the Shi'ite rulers in Tehran and their vaunted "axis of resistance" against Israel and the United States.

The axis has already lost one cog, Hamas, a Palestinian Sunni Islamist group which turned against Assad months ago for his bloody repression of foes including the Muslim Brotherhood.

Assad's fall would weaken a pivotal component, Lebanon's Hezbollah, for which Syria has provided arms, support and a route for weapons from Iran, the Shi'ite group's main patron.

It would also complicate life for Syria's eastern neighbour Iraq, whose Iran-friendly Shi'ite-led government fears that a mainly Sunni leadership could take power in Damascus in place of one dominated by Assad's Shi'ite-rooted Alawite minority.

Western officials have accused Iran of providing funds, weapons and intelligence support to Assad in his struggle to crush opposition. Syrian rebels also says Tehran has sent Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah fighters against them.

How far Iran will go in backing Assad, widely perceived across the Arab world as a tyrant killing his own people, is an open question - and one sometimes debated openly in Tehran.

"There are rational views versus radical ones, but this is Iran. It's very difficult to be more flexible, to argue for change," said one Tehran-based diplomat.

The political and military hardliners in control say Syria stood by Iran in its hour of need, the only Arab nation on its side in the 1980-88 war with Iraq, and deserves loyalty now.

They also view the conflict in Syria as an extension of a sectarian power struggle with Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia, as well as a U.S.-led campaign to shackle its nuclear ambitions by sanctions or if necessary by military force.

"Iran doesn't accept this is about opening Syria up to democracy. It's not at all democratic," said Mohammad Marandi of Tehran University. "Saudi advocates Wahhabi Islam and Iran believes it's pushing for religious polarisation."

Iran said it had won support at Thursday's conference for its call for a halt to violence in Syria and dialogue between Assad and his foes on the Syrian leader's "reform" programme.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said outside interference was worsening the crisis. "It will be a mistake to think that with the continuation of pressure and unwise moves, the Syrian leadership would finally collapse," he added.

Iranian officials have in recent weeks offered to host talks between Syria's government and opposition, although Assad's foes have shown no interest in such a dialogue with the man they want to topple, let alone one organised by Tehran.

Iran may be seeking a diplomatic role after the failure of Kofi Annan's U.N.-backed peace plan, but its chances of success appear doomed from the start, as perhaps its authors know, since Tehran's policy is predicated on keeping Assad in power.

"Iran is trying to take control of and redirect a failed diplomatic process, even though these endeavours will likely fail," said Anthony Skinner of the Maplecroft risks consultancy.

"Tehran is attempting to offset pressure from allies of the armed and unarmed opposition in Syria. It might also show that Iran is running out of ideas on what to do."

Salehi, in an opinion piece in the Washington Post on the eve of the Tehran meeting, presented Iran as "part of the solution, not the problem" - as the United States contends.

"As the world has witnessed during the past decade, we have acted as a stabilising force in Iraq and Afghanistan, two other Muslim countries thrown into turmoil," he wrote, alluding to U.S.-led military interventions in both states.

Salehi also said Syrians should decide their own destiny through a forthcoming presidential election, decreed by Assad.

Tehran has resisted any negotiated transition requiring Assad's exit and the loss of a partner who has helped Iran flex its muscles in Lebanon and in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Earlier this week, senior Iranian envoy Saeed Jalili was in Damascus for talks with Assad, declaring that his country wouldn't allow "the axis of resistance, of which it considers Syria to be an essential part, to be broken in any way".

Next week President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will attend an extraordinary meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Countries set to focus on the Syrian crisis. Iran will want to prevent any attempt to suspend Syria's membership of the Jeddah-based OIC.

While Iran has repeatedly denounced Turkey and Qatar, alongside Saudi Arabia, for supporting Syrian rebels, it has been forced to seek their help in securing the release of 48 Iranians kidnapped by the insurgents last week.

Syrian rebels accuse them of being elite Revolutionary Guards sent to assist Assad's forces in crushing the opposition.

Salehi has acknowledged that some are retired Guards or soldiers, but said they were religious pilgrims, not fighters.

Maplecroft's Skinner said concern over the captives might in part have motivated Iran's flurry of diplomacy.

"If they are serving members of the Guards, then Iran's diplomatic initiatives may be linked to the hostage-taking because of the sensitive information they may have," he said.

For Iran, "losing" Syria would be a damaging blow, but prolonged post-Assad instability might offer opportunities to a country adept at pursuing its interests in a conflict-ridden region, as it has shown in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

"Assad is far from gone and even when he is, things are going to be chaotic for a while," said Dina Esfandiary of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. "

"And Iran thrives in that kind of context."</s>* Iran seen seeking to defend its own regional influence

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will defeat an uprising against him, scoring a victory over the United States and its allies in a move that will also represent a triumph for Iran, an advisor to Iran's supreme leader was quoted as saying on Saturday.

Tehran has backed Assad's efforts to suppress a rebellion that has drawn in regional players, with the Islamic state accusing Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey of arming rebels fighting to topple the Syrian leader.

Shi'ite-ruled Iran has tried to counter a perceived drive by Western and U.S.-aligned Sunni Muslim nations to roll back its own power in the Middle East and fears that success for the Sunni-led uprising in Syria could have grave implications for itself.

The comments by Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign policy advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were some of Tehran's most supportive for Assad so far and came as the United States and France announced greater support for Syrian rebels on Friday.

Iran counts Assad as part of an "axis of resistance," along with Islamist group Hezbollah, against Israeli and U.S. influence in the Middle East.

"The victory of the government of Syria against internal opponents, America, and their other Western and Arab supporters, is counted as a victory of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Velayati said, according to state news agency IRNA.

"The victory of the Syrian government is certain," he added, saying that recent attacks would not weaken the Syrian government.

"The Syrian government's position has stabilised, and some ... explosions and assassinations cannot bring down the regime."

Two explosions targeted one of Syria's top military command buildings in the capital Damascus on Wednesday, and a bomb attack in the Syrian capital on July 18 killed several top security officials.

Western countries and Syrian opposition groups have long suspected Iran of aiding Assad militarily, a charge Iran has denied though the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said earlier this month that its members provide non-military assistance to Syria.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday that Iran will stop at nothing to protect Syria.

A Western intelligence report seen by Reuters said that Iran has been using civilian aircraft to fly military personnel and large quantities of weapons across Iraqi airspace into Syria to aid Assad.

Iraq denied it was allowing its air or land space to be used for such purposes.</s>DUBAI (Reuters) - The Arab world’s biggest powers cut ties with Qatar on Monday, accusing it of support for Islamist militants and Iran, and reopening a festering wound two weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump’s demand for Muslim states to fight terrorism.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain severed diplomatic relations with Qatar in a coordinated move. Yemen, Libya’s eastern-based government and the Maldives joined later. Transport links shut down, triggering supply shortages.

Qatar, a small peninsular nation of 2.5 million people that has a large U.S. military base, denounced the action as predicated on lies about it supporting militants. It has often been accused of being a funding source for Islamists, as has Saudi Arabia.

Iran, long at odds with Saudi Arabia and a behind-the-scenes target of the move, blamed Trump’s visit last month to Riyadh and called for the sides to overcome their differences.

“What is happening is the preliminary result of the sword dance,” tweeted Hamid Aboutalebi, deputy chief of staff to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, referring to Trump’s joining in a traditional dance with the Saudi king at the meeting.

Closing all transport links with Qatar, the three Gulf states gave Qatari visitors and residents two weeks to leave, and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt banned Qatari planes from landing and forbade them from crossing their air space.

Qatar’s stock market index sank 7.3 percent, with some of the market’s top blue chips hardest hit, and some Egyptian banks said they were suspending dealing with Qatari banks.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia stopped exports of white sugar to Qatar, a potential hit to consumers during the holy month of Ramadan, when demand is high. Some residents in Qatar began stockpiling food and supplies, an expatriate said.

“People have stormed into the supermarket hoarding food, especially imported ones. ... It’s chaos - I’ve never seen anything like this before,” said Eva Tobaji, an expatriate resident in Doha, told Reuters after returning from shopping.

Supply difficulties quickly developed. Two Middle East trade sources spoke of thousands of trucks carrying food stuck at the Saudi border, unable make the sole overland frontier crossing into Qatar.

About 80 percent of Qatar’s food requirements are sourced via bigger Gulf Arab neighbors. Trade sources pointed to the likelihood of shortages growing in Qatar until the crisis eased.

Along with Egypt, however, the UAE and Saudi Arabia could be vulnerable to retaliation, being highly dependent on Qatar for liquefied natural gas.

‘WORRISOME’

The hawkish tone on Tehran and on terrorism that Trump brought in his visit to Muslim leaders in Riyadh is seen as having laid the groundwork for the diplomatic crisis.

“You have a shift in the balance of power in the Gulf now because of the new presidency: Trump is strongly opposed to political Islam and Iran,” said Jean-Marc Rickli, head of global risk and resilience at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

“He is totally aligned with Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, who also want no compromise with either Iran or the political Islam promoted by the Muslim Brotherhood.”

The United States called for a quick resolution of the dispute, and does not want to see a “permanent rift,” a senior U.S. administration official said.

“There’s an acknowledgement that a lot of Qatari behavior is quite worrisome not just to our Gulf neighbors but to the U.S.,” the official said. “We want to bring them in the right direction.”

A State Department official said all U.S. partnerships with Gulf nations were vital and called on all parties to quickly resolve their differences.

The U.S. military said it had seen no impact to its Gulf-area operations, intended mainly as a bulwark against Iran, and added it was grateful for Qatar’s long-standing support of a U.S. presence and commitment to regional security.

The diplomatic bust-up threatens the international prestige of Qatar, which is set to host the 2022 soccer World Cup.

Soccer’s governing body, FIFA, said on Monday it was in “regular contact” with Qatar’s 2022 organizing committee, but did not comment directly on the diplomatic situation.

MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD

Qatar’s backing of Islamists dates to a decision by the current emir’s father to end a tradition of automatic deference to Saudi Arabia, the dominant Gulf Arab power, and forge the widest possible array of allies.

Doha subsequently cultivated not only Islamists like America’s foes Iran, Hamas and the Taliban in pursuit of leverage, but also Washington itself, hosting the largest U.S. air base in the Middle East.

Qatar has for years presented itself as a mediator and power broker for the region’s many disputes. But Egypt and the Gulf Arab states resent Qatar’s support for Islamists, especially the Muslim Brotherhood, which they see as a political enemy.

Muslim Brotherhood groups allied to Doha are now mostly on retreat in the region, especially after a 2013 military takeover in Egypt ousted the elected Islamist president.

The former army chief and now president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, along with Cairo’s allies in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, blacklist the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. The Brotherhood says it supports only peaceful politics.

Saudi Arabia accused Qatar on Monday of backing militant groups and broadcasting their ideology, an apparent reference to Qatar’s influential state-owned satellite channel al Jazeera.

Later in the day, the kingdom shut the Saudi bureau of al Jazeera. Al Jazeera says it is an independent news service giving a voice to everyone in the region.

Riyadh also accused Qatar of supporting what it described as Iranian-backed militants in the restive, largely Shi’ite Muslim-populated eastern Saudi region of Qatif, as well as in Bahrain.

Qatar denied it was interfering in the affairs of others.

“The campaign of incitement is based on lies that had reached the level of complete fabrications,” the Qatari foreign ministry said in a statement.

Turkey also called for dialogue to settle the dispute and a government spokesman said President Tayyip Erdogan was working for a diplomatic solution to the rift.

Sudan expressed its concern over the row and offered to mediate between all sides.

FALLOUT

A split between Doha and its closest allies could have repercussions around the Middle East, where Gulf states have used their financial and political power to influence events in Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

The economic fallout was already hitting home as Abu Dhabi’s state-owned Etihad Airways, Dubai’s Emirates Airline and budget carriers Flydubai and Air Arabia said they would suspend all flights to and from Doha indefinitely from Tuesday morning.

Qatar Airways said on its official website it had suspended all flights to Saudi Arabia. Many Gulf airports, including in Qatar, are major hubs for international connecting flights.

The measures are more severe than during a previous eight-month rift in 2014, when Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE withdrew their ambassadors from Doha, again alleging Qatari support for militant groups. At that time, travel links were maintained and Qataris were not expelled.

FILE PHOTO - An aerial view of Doha's diplomatic area March 21, 2013. REUTERS/Fadi Al-Assaad/File Photo

Neighboring Kuwait has been mediating in the dispute, and its emir, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, urged Qatar’s ruler to calm tensions and refrain from escalating the rift, Kuwait state news agency Kuna said.

Al-Sabah called on Qatar’s Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani to give efforts at mediation a chance to contain differences, a few hours after Khalid al-Faisal, an adviser to the Saudi king, visited Kuwait.</s>* Its oil imports from Iran fell over 30% in Oct from Sept

ANKARA, Dec 5 Turkey has not received any new request from the United States to reduce the level of its crude oil purchases from Iran and is continuing with its existing level of imports, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told Reuters on Wednesday.

In June Washington exempted Turkey, along with six other countries, from financial sanctions on Iran's oil trade for six months in return for a 20 percent cut in Ankara's purchases.

Last week, the U.S. Senate approved expanded sanctions on global trade with Iran's energy and shipping sectors as it continued to ratchet up economic pressure on Tehran over its nuclear programme.

The new package kept in place exemptions for countries including Turkey that have made significant cuts to their purchases of Iranian crude oil.

"There is no new demand from the USA to reduce the amount of crude oil which we get from Iran," Yildiz said.

"Whatever the current process is for purchasing crude oil from Iran, we are continuing that in the same way," he added.

Official trade data last month showed Turkey's crude oil imports from Iran fell by more than 30 percent to 75,281 barrels per day (bpd) in October from September as volumes of oil from other suppliers including Iraq and Saudi Arabia increased.

The Islamic Republic, which once supplied more than 60 percent of Turkey's crude requirements, ranked third in October behind Iraq and Russia.

Washington says Tehran is enriching uranium to levels that could be used in nuclear weapons. Iran says the programme is for peaceful purposes.

In natural gas, Turkey accounts for about 90 percent of exports from Iran, which ranks second as its supplier behind Russia.

Yildiz told reporters in parliament that Turkey had held talks with the United States on the subject and that Washington had agreed not to impose sanctions on its natural gas purchases from Iran.

"We said to them, if you tell us not to buy gas from Iran, that would be a sanction on Turkey and not on Iran. They agreed not to include natural gas agreements in the sanctions," Yildiz said.

Turkey pays for the gas using Turkish lira, which Tehran uses to buy Turkish gold. Couriers carry the gold to Dubai and from there, it is shipped to Iran.

Separately, Yildiz said Turkey's energy investments in Iraq were continuing as planned.

His comments came a day after a plane carrying him to a conference in Iraqi Kurdistan was denied permission to land.

Iraq's central government in Baghdad, which has been locked in a feud over oil and land rights with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in the north, has been riled by Turkey's recent moves aimed at forging closer ties with the Iraqi Kurds.</s>"Turkey has its links with the opposition in Syria. So we think Turkey can play a major role in freeing our pilgrims," Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters as he arrived in Ankara.

A busload of 48 Iranians was seized in Syria on Saturday. Tehran says they were pilgrims visiting a Shi'ite Muslim shrine, denying suggestions that they were military personnel helping President Bashar al-Assad put down a rebellion.

A Syrian rebel spokesman said on Monday that three of the Iranians had been killed in a government air strike and said the rest would be executed if the attacks did not stop. There has been no word on their fate since then.

The once close ties between the Middle East's two non-Arab powers have been ravaged by events in Syria. Turkey has demanded Assad quit but Iran supports his suppression of the "terrorists" it says are backed by its regional and Western enemies.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called comments by Iran's top general Hassan Firouzabadi this week blaming Turkey for the bloodshed in Syria "regrettable" and denied his country has meddled in Syrian affairs.

"The statement by Iran's chief of general staff on a website belonging to the Revolutionary Guards that Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are responsible for the bloody developments in Syria is worrying and regrettable," Erdogan told members of his party in comments broadcast live by NTV television.

Erdogan also sought to remind Tehran he had been one of its few defenders amid Western pressure to boycott Iran over its nuclear programme, which the United States and others believe is aimed at making an atomic bomb, despite Iran's denials.

"When no one else was by its side, Turkey was the country that stood by Iran, despite everything. Turkey was also the country that defended (its right to) nuclear energy," he said.

"But on Syria, once again I ask the Iranians: Does defending a regime that kills its brothers, and I think it has reached 25,000 by now, suit our values, our beliefs?"

Before Salehi's plane landed in Ankara, the Turkish Foreign Ministry issued a statement in which it called the comments from Firouzabadi "unacceptable and irresponsible."

As Salehi arrived in Turkey, another senior Iranian foreign policy official was in Damascus to reassure Assad of Tehran's support.

"Iran will not allow the axis of resistance, of which it considers Syria to be an essential part, to be broken in any way," Syrian state television quoted Saeed Jalili, the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, as telling Assad.

Reflecting Iran's view that its enemies in the Middle East and the West are backing the Syrian rebels, Jalili, the representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the 17-month uprising was a "conflict between the axis of resistance and its enemies in the region and the world".

The "axis of resistance" refers to Iran's alliance with Syria and Lebanon's Shi'ite group Hezbollah, which fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006, with Iranian and Syrian support. It also includes some Palestinian militant groups.

Assad reiterated his determination to defeat the rebels, affirming "the Syrian people and government's determination to cleanse the country of terrorists", the TV report said.

Assad is a member of the Alawite faith, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has dominated Syrian politics through more than 40 years of his family's rule in a country that has a Sunni Muslim majority.

Iran is the Middle East's Shi'ite Muslim power whose regional influence is viewed with suspicion by its mostly Sunni Arab neighbours in the Gulf.

While Syrian rebels accuse Iran of sending fighters from its Revolutionary Guard to help Assad's forces put down the uprising, Iranian officials have blamed the United States, Turkey and Qatar for the kidnapping of its citizens.

"We do not only blame the terrorists on this issue," Jalili told reporters in comments aired on Iranian television. "All those who help them ... are participants in their criminal actions, and we hold them responsible."

Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani, in a speech in parliament aired on Iranian television, said: "In the name of Islam, some of these governments have launched killings and even treat Iranian pilgrims in Syria with violence. These crimes are not something the Iranian nation will disregard.

"The American regime and some countries in the region are responsible for these crimes. And they will receive their response in turn."</s>Dec 5 Turkey has not received any new request from the United States to reduce the level of its crude oil purchases from Iran and its existing level of purchases is continuing, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told Reuters on Wednesday.

In June, Washington exempted Turkey and six other countries from its financial sanctions on Iran's oil trade in return for a 20 percent cut in Turkey's purchases.</s>Aug 7 Only Turkey and Iran working together can resolve their region's conflicts, particularly the fighting in Syria, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on a visit to Turkey on Tuesday.

"Without anyone of these major players I think the realisation or materialisation of peace and stability in the region, especially in countries like Syria, will be very difficult," Salehi told reporters at the airport.

He added he would discuss with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu the situation of 48 Iranians seized by rebels in Syria.</s>Obama, widely seen as having snubbed Netanyahu by not meeting face to face with him during his U.S. visit, spoke instead by phone to the Israeli prime minister amid signs of movement toward a truce in their war of words over how to confront Tehran.

Netanyahu used his U.N. speech a day earlier to keep pressure on Washington to set a "red line" for Tehran, something Obama has refused to do. But in a softening of his approach, the hawkish Israeli premier signaled that no attack on Iran was imminent before the November 6 U.S. presidential election.

With an eye to the close presidential contest, Netanyahu also fielded a call during his New York visit from Obama's Republican rival, Mitt Romney, who has accused the president of being too hard on a close ally and not tough enough on Iran.

Romney has sought to use Obama's differences with Netanyahu to raise doubts with Jewish-American voters about Obama's commitment to Israel's security.

Obama's aides believe, however, that he has played his cards right with Netanyahu, with whom the president has had a notoriously testy relationship.

Netanyahu's strident complaints about U.S. policy on Iran in mid-September plunged U.S.-Israeli relations into crisis, but also spurred a backlash at home and in the U.S. media for seeming to meddle in American politics.

In recent days, the Israelis have sought to dial down the rhetoric, culminating in Netanyahu's speech to the General Assembly, which was seen as sending a message that Israel would not blindside Washington with a unilateral attack on Iran any time soon.

"The two leaders underscored that they are in full agreement on the shared goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," the White House said in a summary of their 20-minute phone conversation.

The White House said the two agreed to continue their cooperation, b ut it stopped short of saying Obama had given any ground on his resistance to issuing an ultimatum to Tehran, as Netanyahu has repeatedly demanded.

"I had a very good conversation with President Obama," Netanyahu told Israel television. "Our teams are talking."

An Obama aide went further, saying, "The temperature is lower than it had been."

Netanyahu dramatically ramped up pressure on Obama earlier this month when he insisted the United States did not have a "moral right" to hold Israel back from taking action against Iran because Washington had not set its own limits on Tehran.

That was followed by word that Obama would not meet Netanyahu during the Israeli leader's visit to address the United Nations. Obama later said pointedly that he would ignore the "noise that's out there" on the Iran issue.

Obama's aides were furious that Netanyahu was trying to put pressure on the president in the midst of the election campaign and refused to budge on the red-line issue, despite the risk of alienating pro-Israel voters in election battleground states like Florida and Ohio.

At the same time, Israeli officials - mindful of the danger of antagonizing the Jewish state's main ally and of poisoning relations with the man who could occupy the White House for another four years - moved into damage-control mode.

Michael Oren, Israeli ambassador to the United States, flew back to Jerusalem last weekend, during which he urged Netanyahu to tone down public statements that could be construed as interfering in the U.S. election or supporting Romney, according to sources in the Jewish community in Washington.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak visited Chicago and met privately on September 20 with Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a former close Obama aide, raising speculation that Emanuel might be used as a back-channel conduit to mend ties with the president.

The Israeli desire to defuse the crisis may also have reflected an interpretation of recent U.S. opinion polls showing a widening of Obama's lead over Romney, who has suffered a series of political stumbles.

Romney, speaking to reporters on his campaign plane, said he and Netanyahu agreed Iran must be denied nuclear capabilities but did not agree on specific "red lines" to confront Tehran.

"I do not believe in the final analysis we will have to use military action," Romney said. "I certainly hope we don't have to. I can't take that action off the table."

In his U.N. speech, Netanyahu held up a cartoon-like drawing of a bomb with a fuse and literally drew a red line just below a label reading "final stage," in which Iran would supposedly be 90 percent along the path to having weapons-grade material.

Nevertheless, his warning that Iran would be on the brink of developing a nuclear weapon in less than a year was widely interpreted as some giving breathing space to Obama, who has urged more time for sanctions and diplomacy to work.

By referring to a spring or summer 2013 time frame for Iran to complete the next stage of uranium enrichment, the Israeli leader seemed to dispel fears that Israel might strike Iran before the U.S. election.

Iran denies it is seeking to build nuclear weaponry.

Netanyahu's praise for Obama's stern words for Iran in his own U.N. speech on Tuesday - although it lacked any specific ultimatum - was also seen as a sign that the Israeli leader wanted to quell the unusually public dispute with Washington.

"I think we are moving in a direction where the differences that were there, which were always tactical and not strategic, are in fact being managed at this point," Dennis Ross, Obama's former Middle East adviser, told MSNBC.

Still, White House officials were pleased at avoiding an encounter with Netanyahu, who used an Oval Office meeting in 2011 to lecture Obama on Jewish history. Obama instead kept a lower-than-usual profile at this year's U.N. gathering, making a campaign-style appearance on the popular talk show "The View" and then quickly returning to electioneering. (Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball, Jeffrey Heller, Sam Youngman and Ori Lewis; Editing by Peter Cooney)</s>Meanwhile, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Saeed Jalili, arrived in Syria for talks with President Bashar al-Assad and other officials, Iranian state television IRIB said.

Iran has stood by its ally Syria despite the growing international pressure on Assad, while Turkey has been among the Syrian president's fiercest critics, demanding that he stand down to defuse a 17-month uprising against his rule.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry official confirmed Salehi's visit, saying it included talks on regional issues with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

The Iranian diplomat said Salehi was expected to arrive in the afternoon and leave later on Tuesday.

"It is expected that the talks will take up the Syrian issue and the situation of the pilgrims kidnapped in Damascus, as well as bilateral issues," the diplomat told Reuters.

Jalili, who arrived in Syria after wrapping a visit to Lebanon, was scheduled to meet Assad and Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmad Arnous, IRIB said. Jalili planned to hold a press conference at Iran's embassy in Damascus on Tuesday, it said.

Jalili acts as the representative of Iran's ultimate authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and is also Iran's chief negotiator in Tehran's dispute with Western powers over its nuclear programme.

"We have always said that the solution to the problem in this country is democracy, which cannot be achieved through the export of arms and bloodshed," Jalili, referring to Syria, was quoted as saying by the Iranian Students' News Agency during a meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour.

Iran has asked Turkey, as well as Qatar, to help secure the release of 48 Iranians seized by rebels in Syria on suspicion of being military personnel, though Tehran says they are pilgrims.

A Syrian rebel spokesman said on Monday that three of the Iranians had been killed in a government air strike in Damascus and warned the rest of them would be executed if the attacks did not stop. There has been no word of their fate since then.

Syrian rebels fighting to topple Assad accuse Iran of sending fighters from its Revolutionary Guard to help Assad's forces put down the uprising.

Tehran denies the charge and says the group was on a religious pilgrimage to Syria. Iranian media said on Saturday that the 48 had been abducted from a bus in Damascus, the latest in a string of kidnappings of visitors from the Islamic Republic.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on Monday blamed Turkey, the U.S. and Qatar for the kidnappings, and Iran summoned a diplomat in Switzerland's embassy in Tehran, which looks after American interests in the absence of a U.S. embassy there, over the kidnappings, Iranian media reported.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani on Tuesday blamed the United States and countries in the region for the killing of the Iranians.

"In the name of Islam, some of these governments have launched killings and even treat Iranian pilgrims in Syria with violence. These crimes are not something the Iranian nation will disregard," Larijani said in a speech in parliament aired on Iranian television. "The American regime and some countries in the region are responsible for these crimes. And they will receive their response in turn."

Tehran has accused Turkey and Qatar of helping rebels fighting to topple Assad. Several Iranians previously abducted in Syria have been released to Turkish authorities before returning to Iran.</s>ANKARA, Aug 7 Iran's foreign minister flew to Turkey on Tuesday seeking to mend a relationship sorely strained by the Syrian uprising and to secure Turkish help for dozens of kidnapped Iranians.

"Turkey has its links with the opposition in Syria. So we think Turkey can play a major role in freeing our pilgrims," Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters as he arrived in Ankara.

A busload of 48 Iranians was seized in Syria on Saturday. Tehran says they were pilgrims visiting a Shi'ite Muslim shrine, denying suggestions that they were military personnel helping President Bashar al-Assad put down a rebellion.

A Syrian rebel spokesman said on Monday that three of the Iranians had been killed in a government air strike and said the rest would be executed if the attacks did not stop. There has been no word of their fate since then.

The once close ties between the Middle East's two non-Arab powers have been ravaged by events in Syria. Turkey has demanded Assad quit but Iran supports his suppression of the "terrorists" it says are backed by its regional and Western enemies.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will ask Salehi to explain comments by an Iranian military chief who blamed Turkey, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, for bloodshed in Syria and helping the "war-raging goals of America".

"It is unacceptable and irresponsible that Iranian officials in various posts continue to target our country through their statements, although Turkey's principled foreign policy is known to everyone," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement ahead of the meeting.

"Our minister will particularly raise these issues with Iranian foreign minister Mr. Salehi."

As Salehi arrived in Turkey, another senior Iranian foreign policy official was in Damascus to reassure Assad of Tehran's support.

"Iran will not allow the axis of resistance, of which it considers Syria to be an essential part, to be broken in any way," Syrian state television quoted Saeed Jalili, the head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, as telling Assad.

Reflecting Iran's view that its enemies in the Middle East and the West are backing the Syrian rebels, Jalili, the representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the 17-month uprising was a "conflict between the axis of resistance and its enemies in the region and the world".

The "axis of resistance" refers to Iran's alliance with Syria and Lebanon's Shi'ite group Hezbollah, which fought a month-long war with Israel in 2006, with Iranian and Syrian support. It also includes some Palestinian militant groups.

Assad reiterated his determination to defeat the rebels, affirming "the Syrian people and government's determination to cleanse the country of terrorists", the TV report said.

Assad is a member of the Alawite faith, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has dominated Syrian politics through more than 40 years of his family's rule in a country that has a Sunni Muslim majority.

Iran is the Middle East's Shi'ite Muslim power whose regional influence is viewed with suspicion by the its mostly Sunni Arab neighbours in the Gulf.

While Syrian rebels accuse Iran of sending fighters from its Revolutionary Guard to help Assad's forces put down the uprising, Iranian officials have blamed accused the United States, Turkey, and Qatar for kidnappings its citizens.

"We do not only blame the terrorists on this issue," Jalili told reporters in comments that were aired on Iranian television. "All those who help them ... are participants in their criminal actions, and we hold them responsible."

Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani blamed the United States and countries in the region for killing the Iranians.

"In the name of Islam, some of these governments have launched killings and even treat Iranian pilgrims in Syria with violence. These crimes are not something the Iranian nation will disregard," Larijani said in a speech in parliament aired on Iranian television.

"The American regime and some countries in the region are responsible for these crimes. And they will receive their response in turn."
Iran, Turkey, and the United States call for the sides to peacefully resolve their differences.