Syria is “genuinely worried” some countries might equip extremist groups with chemical weapons and then claim they were used by the Syrian government, the country’s UN envoy said in a letter to UN chief Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad attended prayers in a Damascus mosque to mark the start of a Muslim holiday yesterday, his first appearance in public since the bombing last month that killed four of his top security officials.

Syria and Iran are willing to help try to stabilise Iraq but they will want something in return and neither has a magic solution to the country’s bloodshed, Mideast officials and analysts said today after a US commission recommended such outreach.