Syria's government has responded with "constructive interest" to a U.N. proposal to suspend fighting in the second city of Aleppo, U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Tuesday.

"My meetings here with the government and with President (Bashar) Assad gave me the feeling that they are studying very seriously and very actively the U.N. proposal," De Mistura said at a press conference in Damascus.

Syria on Tuesday released a 26-year-old woman whose mother gave birth to her in jail and who was herself arrested this month on her way back from Lebanon, a lawyer said

"Syrian authorities on Tuesday freed Maria Bahjar Shaabo without charges," human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni told Agence France Presse.

Iran and world powers met in Muscat Tuesday amid growing signs that a long-bargained deal on Tehran's nuclear program will not be struck by a November 24 deadline.

The one-day meeting comes after lengthy discussions between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif broke off in the Gulf sultanate late Monday with no signs of progress.

Qatar's ruling emir says U.S.-led coalition airstrikes are not enough to defeat "terrorism and extremism" in Iraq and Syria, and the world must also take action against factors fueling radicalism.

In comments to an advisory council in the Qatari capital of Doha on Tuesday, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani claimed that the key factors fueling extremism in the two Mideast countries are the policies of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government and "some militias in Iraq" — a reference to Iranian-backed Shiite militias.

The leader of the moderate Syrian opposition accused the U.S.-led coalition in an interview Tuesday of having a "confused" strategy in Iraq and Syria that targeted jihadists but turned "a blind eye" to crimes by Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"The coalition is fighting the symptom of the problem, which is ISIS (the Islamic State organisation), without addressing the main cause, which is the regime," Syrian National Coalition President Hadi al-Bahra told The Guardian newspaper.

The Syrian government has set three conditions to engage in a prisoners swap with the Islamic State group and al-Qaida-affiliate al-Nusra Front to guarantee the safe release of the abducted Lebanese soldiers and policemen.

Al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Tuesday that the Syrian government demanded its Lebanese counterpart to “officially appeal for help” to facilitate the release of the names enlisted by the two Islamist groups.

Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat reiterated that not all those who rebelled against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad are terrorists.

“The Syrian people chose to revolt against Syrian President Bashar Assad. They wanted to get rid of his tyranny and crimes,” Jumblat, who is also a lawmaker, told al-Mustaqbal newspaper on Tuesday.

Several terrorist detainees have confessed to a plot by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant to stage a ground offensive and control several regions in northern Lebanon to announce the establishment of the Islamic State in Lebanon.

A high-ranking military source told al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Tuesday that Imad Jomaa, Ahmed Miqati and several other detainees admitted that the ground offensive aimed at opening a corridor to the sea across northern Lebanon by connecting Arsal with Hermel, Dinniyeh, Akkar and ultimately the coastal city of Tripoli.

Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas said the number of Syrians seeking refuge in Lebanon has been dropping although a decision on not to accept more refugees hasn't been fully implemented yet.

The UNHCR reports show that the number of refugees in Lebanon began to decline, Derbas told An Nahar newspaper in remarks published on Tuesday.

Britain will make "a significant contribution" to equip and train the moderate Syrian opposition to defeat both Islamic State extremists and the Damascus regime of President Bashar Assad, its foreign secretary said on Monday.

The statement came after a London meeting between Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and Hadi al-Bahra of the opposition Syrian National Coalition.