Syria, Libya (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Let's Make It All About Iran

Presidents Assad and Ahmadinejad2040 GMT: Reuters reports a protest of about 300 people in the Druze city of Sweida in Syria. Police with sticks dispersed the demonstrators.

2020 GMT: An opposition fighter describes today's bombardment by regime forces of Misurata:

The port area was heavily shelled today and the destruction there is huge. I was there and saw for myself. Over 200 Grad missiles fell on the port area, including residential neighborhoods near the port. They shelled this area because the port is Misurata's only window to the outside world.

2015 GMT: Back from extended break for a conference --- thanks to Ali Yenidunya for updating through the late morning and afternoon.

Right back to our opening story today (0500 GMT) --- Syria has denied allegations by unnamed US officials and then by a State Department spokesman that Iran is helping Syrian authorities combat unrest.

State TV quoted a Foreign Ministry official, "There is no truth to the announcement by the U.S. State Department about the presence of evidence of Iranian help to Syria in quelling the protests. If it has the evidence, why doesn't it announce it?"

After anonymous Administration officials had used the Wall Street Journal to press their charges, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, "We believe that there is credible information that Iran is assisting Syria...in quelling the protestors. It's a real concern to us. If Syria is turning to Iran for help, it can't be really serious about real reforms."

1535 GMT: Rebels and pro-Qaddafi forces are trading fire near Ajdabiya in eastern Libya.

1530 GMT: Bahrain's Justice Ministry stated that it had filed a legal case against Islamic Action Society and Al Wefaq National Islamic Society for posing a threat to domestic peace and national unity, and inciting disrespect for state constitutional institutions.

1150 GMT: After rejecting a Saudi-brokered, Gulf-backed initiative, Yemeni opposition leaders said that President Ali Abdullah Saleh has two weeks to step down.

1145 GMT: According to Reuters, Bahrain is seeking court approval to dissolve main Shiite opposition party. 

1140 GMT: Moroccan government frees political prisoners in an aparent attempt to appease protests. 

1135 GMT: It is claimed that the death toll from this morning's attack in Misrata is 23, most of whom are children and women. 

1015 GMT: Libya's Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled el-Kaim has claimed that Qatar has sent French-made anti-tank missiles to insurgents in the eastern city of Benghazi.

El-Kaim also said that there were international experts in Libya training the insurgents.

1010 GMT: An eight-minute clip of Wednesday's protest in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, calling for the departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh:

0930 GMT: Claimed video of Syrian students demonstrating on Wednesday:

0920 GMT: French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has pulled back on the earlier statement from President Nicolas Sarkozy's office that "all means must be made available" to insurgents. Asked if NATO should arm the opposition, Juppe said, "France is not currently in that frame of mind".

0915 GMT: An opposition spokesman has said regime forces have struck the Libyan city of Misurata with dozens of Grad rockets, killing eight insurgents and wounding 20.

0725 GMT: Katherine Zoepf, writing in The New York Times, summarises yesterday's protest in Syria's second-largest city:

At least 200 students [Editor's Note: Other reports say 500] protested at the University of Aleppo, witnesses and human rights advocates said, until security forces broke up the demonstration, hauling away dozens of students.

A literature student, who asked not to be named because of the risk to his safety, said that he was outside the main literature faculty building when a student near the entrance began shouting pro-democracy slogans.

“It started with one person,” the student said. “He was chanting ‘Peaceful! Peaceful! Freedom! Freedom!’ Security didn’t show up directly. It took them almost 10 minutes.”

Within those 10 minutes, the student said, about 200 other students had joined in, chanting slogans calling for freedom and expressing support for protesters in the cities of Baniyas, where protests were violently suppressed this week, and Dara’a, where the protest movement began in mid-March after the arrest of a group of local schoolboys for writing antigovernment graffiti.

An Arabic literature student who also witnessed Wednesday’s demonstration said that the students were shouting “God, Syria, freedom, and that’s enough!” and “We sacrifice our souls and our blood for Dara’a and Baniyas!”

The student said that members of the University of Aleppo’s student union, which is run by Syria’s ruling Baath Party, quickly confronted the protesting students, “shouting at them and labeling them agents and spies for America and Israel.”

0700 GMT: The French and British Governments are putting out the line, despite the failure of the international Libya Contact Group to agree yesterday on the extent of armed support for the opposition, that they will step up military pressure on the Qaddafi regime.

A source in the French Presidency said President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron, the British prime minister, agreed that "all means must be made available" to the insurgents.

Cameron said he will "leave no stone unturned, militarily, diplomatically, politically, to enforce the UN resolution, to put real pressure on Qaddafi and to stop the appalling murder of civilians that he is still carrying out as you've shown on our television screens in Misurata and elsewhere in Libya".

The declarations were made before today's meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers in Berlin.

0645 GMT: Tunisian prosecutors have prepared 18 legal cases against former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, including "conspiring against the state", "voluntary manslaughter" and "drug trafficking".

Minister of Justice Lazhar Karoui Chebbi said a total of 44 legal cases have been prepared against Ben Ali, his family and his close advisors.

Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia after his 23-year rule was ended by mass protests on 14 January.

Chebbi said the Justice Ministry was exploring legal ways to extradite Ben Ali from Saudi Arabia to face trial.

0600 GMT: Anti-regime activists are circulating a document which they claim is a plan by senior Syrian intelligence officials to infiltrate the protest movement, arrest and assassinate their leaders, and link demonstrations to “Zionist” and foreign groups.

The document is dated 23 March, a few days after the uprising began in Syria. It warns, "There is a growing tendency amongst a tiny faction to imitate what happened in Tunisia and Egypt, benefiting from economic conditions in the country and from the external conditions that abet activities amongst the populace."

Proposed measures include: "Link the anti-regime demonstrations and protests to figures hated by the Syrian populace such as the usual Saudi and Lebanese figures, and connecting the lot of them to Zionism and to America"; "Assign some security personnel in all security agencies to work via Facebook, in order to respond to and to jam up the opponents"; "Assigning well-known and respected actors and artists in the entertainment world whose loyalty is confirmed, or who have been arrested before, to speak at areas of protests and to respond to the opposition and the protestors according to what we assign them"; "A campaign of calling in youth to for questioning by security agencies in order to create an atmosphere of fear resulting in hesitation to participate in protests"; "The exhaustion of opposition figures with lawsuits of all types to smear their moral and religious reputations"; and "The strict surveillance by the military security branch of the agency over military and armed forces personnel including medium and high leadership levels, especially Sunni figures".

0500 GMT: There may have been an international meeting in Qatar on Wednesday about the Libyan crisis, one which called for Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi to step down but which stopped short of recognising an opposition government and which --- at least formally --- could not agree on supply of arms to the insurgents. 

There may have been serious clashes in Yemen, not only with the killing of protesters by security battles but with deadly skirmishes between rival military factions. 

There may have been the drama of former President Hosni Mubarak's heart attack as he faced questioning over corruption.

There may have been revelations about the deaths of detainees in the custody of Bahraini security forces.

But for some US officials, using The Wall Street Journal as an outlet for their anonymous declarations, all of this is about Iran:

Iran is secretly helping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad put down pro-democracy demonstrations, according to U.S. officials, who say Tehran is providing gear to suppress crowds and assistance blocking and monitoring protesters' use of the Internet, cellphones and text-messaging.

At the same time, communications intercepted by U.S. spy agencies show Tehran is actively exploring ways to aid some Shiite hardliners in Bahrain and Yemen and destabilize longstanding U.S. allies there, say U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence. Such moves could challenge interests of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia and inflame sectarian tensions across the Middle East, they say.

"We believe that Iran is materially assisting the Syrian government in its efforts to suppress their own people," said an Obama administration official.

U.S. officials say they don't see Iran as the driving force behind popular revolts against longtime U.S. allies in the Mideast, and caution they have no concrete evidence that Iran is providing or preparing large-scale financial or military support to opposition elements in Bahrain or Yemen.

Rather, the White House has worried that protracted political turmoil could provide an opening for additional influence by Tehran, whose nuclear ambitions are a concern to the U.S. and its allies in Europe and the Middle East.

So far, an administration official said, Iranian "aspirations far outpace their ability to project their influence into these places."

By disclosing intelligence about Iranian involvement, the U.S. appears to be trying to put Tehran on notice that it is under close surveillance in Washington. "We're keeping an eye on these activities," another Obama administration official said.

The U.S. disclosures also appear designed to help soothe anxious Arab and Israeli allies, who have privately complained that President Barack Obama, in his enthusiasm to embrace popular uprisings, is paying scant attention to how the revolts could play into the hands of their regional nemesis, Iran. By voicing concerns about Iran's activities, the U.S. appears to be trying to close ranks, at least in part, with Saudi and Bahraini leaders whose warnings about Tehran's influence in their internal affairs have long been played down in Washington.

For a far different view, see our separate entry, "Libya-Syria-Yemen-Bahrain: Is It All About the US and Iran?"