MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia warned the United States on Sunday against repeating past mistakes, saying that any unilateral military action in Syria would undermine efforts for peace and have a devastating impact on the security situation in the Middle East.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said its statement was a response to U.S. actions to give it the option of an armed strike against Syria.

It drew a parallel between reports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces had used chemical weapons and Washington's 2003 intervention in Iraq following accusations by then-President George Bush's administration that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's government possessed weapons of mass destruction.

"We once again decisively urge (the United States) not to repeat the mistakes of the past and not to allow actions that go against international law," the ministry said.

"Any unilateral military action bypassing the United Nations will ... lead to further escalation (in Syria) and will affect the already explosive situation in the Middle East in the most devastating way."

Moscow said any military action would severely hamper joint U.S.-Russian efforts for an international peace conference to end a civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people.

"The threat to use force against the Syrian regime sends the (Syrian) opposition conflicting signals," the ministry said. "All sponsors of the opposition, which have influence over it, must seek the fastest possible agreement from Bashar al-Assad's opponents to hold talks."

U.S. President Barack Obama met his security advisers on Saturday to debate options following reports of the alleged chemical attack. U.S. naval forces have been repositioned in the Mediterranean to give Washington the option of an armed strike.

Syria's opposition accused Assad's forces of gassing many hundreds of people - by one report as many as 1,300 - on Wednesday. Syria said earlier on Sunday it had agreed to let the experts visit the site.

Russia, which has suggested that Syrian rebels may have carried out the attack, also said on Sunday that assigning blame too soon over the alleged poison gas strike would be a "tragic mistake", before a U.N. investigation on Monday.

(Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel; Editing by Jon Boyle and Pravin Char)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel pushed forward Sunday with plans to construct 1,500 apartments in east Jerusalem in a move that could undermine recently renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

City spokeswoman Brachie Sprung said city officials had approved plans to lay down infrastructure for the project. She called the move a "standard and bureaucratic process" and said final government approval was still required. Actual construction is still years away, she said.

Still, the move comes just after Israelis and Palestinians resumed talks after a five-year stalemate. Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem is one of the thornier issues separating the two sides.

The city is pushing development in the neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, a project that has also raised tensions with the U.S. Israel first announced the plans in 2010 during U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Israel, sparking a diplomatic rift with Washington that took months to mend.

Israel annexed east Jerusalem following its 1967 war with its Arab neighbors and claims the area as an inseparable part of its capital. The Palestinians also claim east Jerusalem as the capital of their hoped-for state. About 200,000 Jews and roughly 250,000 Palestinians live in east Jerusalem, which is home to sensitive Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites.

While Israelis consider east Jerusalem enclaves neighborhoods like others in the city, the international community doesn't recognize Israel's annexation of the area and rejects the areas as illegal or illegitimate settlements.

Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi accused Israel of playing a "dangerous game" by moving ahead with the plans.

"It seems they're pushing ahead with infrastructure as though this is not a basic part of settlement activity!" she wrote in an email.

The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment.

A picture of Edward Snowden, a contractor at the National Security Agency (NSA), is seen on a computer screen displaying a page of a Chinese news website, in Beijing in this June 13, 2013 photo illustration. REUTERS/Jason Lee

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden got stuck in the transit zone of a Moscow airport because Havana said it would not let him fly from Russia to Cuba, a Russian newspaper reported on Monday.

Snowden, who is wanted in the United States for leaking details of U.S. government surveillance programs, had planned to fly to Havana from Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport a day after arriving from Hong Kong on June 23.

But Snowden, who eventually accepted a year's asylum in Russia after spending nearly six weeks at Sheremetyevo, did not show up for the flight although he had been allocated a seat.

Citing several sources, including one close to the U.S. State Department, Kommersant newspaper said the reason was that at the last minute Cuba told officials to stop Snowden from boarding the Aeroflot flight.

It said Cuba had changed its mind after pressure by the United States, which wants to try Snowden on espionage charges.

Kommersant also said Snowden had spent a couple of days in the Russian consulate in Hong Kong to declare his intention of flying to Latin America via Moscow.

"His choice of route and his plea to help were a complete surprise to us. We did not invite him," Kommersant quoted a Russian state source as saying.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Allowing Snowden to land would have put Cuba's relations with the United States at risk.

Ties between the United States and Russia were strained when Moscow granted Snowden asylum. Following the disagreement over Snowden, U.S. President Barack Obama postponed a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin planned for next month.

(Reporting by Katya Golubkova, editing by Elizabeth Piper and Timothy Heritage)

Why Snowden got stuck in Russia

The NSA leaker had planned to fly from Moscow to Havana until something made Cuba block his entry, a newspaper reports.
'We did not invite him'

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A television screen shows former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden during a news bulletin at a cafe at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport July 24, 2013. REUTERS/Tatyana Makeyeva

By Darya Korsunskaya and David Ingram

MOSCOW/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has made a formal promise to Russia not to execute or torture Edward Snowden if he is sent home to face charges of illegally disclosing government secrets, and the Kremlin said Russian and U.S. security agencies are in talks over his fate.

The 30-year-old former U.S. spy agency contractor has been stuck in the transit area of a Moscow airport for more than a month despite Washington's calls to hand him over.

Russia has refused to extradite Snowden, who leaked details of a secret U.S. surveillance program including phone and Internet data, and is now considering his request for a temporary asylum.

In a letter dated Tuesday July 23 and released on Friday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder wrote that he sought to dispel claims about what would happen to Snowden if he is sent home.

"Mr. Snowden has filed papers seeking temporary asylum in Russia on the grounds that if he were returned to the United States, he would be tortured and would face the death penalty. These claims are entirely without merit," Holder wrote.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia's FSB and its U.S. counterpart, the FBI, were in talks over Snowden, whose stay at the Moscow Sheremetyevo airport has further strained Moscow-Washington ties.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had expressed "strong determination", he said, not to let relations suffer over the dispute "no matter how the situation develops". Putin himself is not personally dealing with the problem, the spokesman said.

But he reiterated Moscow's stance that Russia "did not hand over, does not hand over and will not hand over anybody".

Putin, a former KGB spy, has said Snowden could only be granted sanctuary in Russia if he stopped actions that could harm the United States.

A U.S. law enforcement official following the case confirmed the FBI has been in discussions with the FSB about Snowden for some time now but added he was not aware of any recent breakthroughs or imminent developments stemming from that.

A Russian security expert said the talks may be about how to secure a promise from Snowden to stop leaking if he were granted sanctuary in Russia.

"The United States maybe understands that they are not going to get Snowden, so my theory is that they are trying to save face and stop Snowden from publishing new exposes," Andrei Soldatov said, adding that he was skeptical this could be done.

ASYLUM OFFERS

Snowden's supporters have worried he could face the same fate as Private First Class Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier on trial for providing documents to WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group. On his arrest, Manning was placed in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day with guards checking on him every few minutes.

"Torture is unlawful in the United States," Holder wrote, without explicit reference to Manning. "If he returns to the United States, Mr. Snowden would promptly be brought before a civilian court."

Snowden has been offered asylum by three Latin American countries but none of them is reachable directly on commercial flights from Moscow, where he flew in from Hong Kong on June 23. He has also had his passport revoked by the United States.

His hopes for leaving the Sheremetyevo airport transit zone, which Russia insists is formally not its territory, were dashed at the last minute on Wednesday, prompting a wave of speculation about possible political intervention or a hitch.

A Russian lawyer assisting Snowden in his asylum request, Anatoly Kucherena, who also sits on an advisory group to the Russian authorities, said his client feared he could face torture or the death penalty if returned to the United States.

Russia's federal migration service has up to three months to consider Snowden's temporary asylum request filed on July 16. An official was quoted on Friday as saying that could be extended to six months.

Snowden is a convenient propaganda tool for the Kremlin, which often accuses the United States of preaching abroad what it does not practice at home on human rights.

But Moscow has also held Snowden at arm's length as Putin wants U.S. President Barack Obama to come to a bilateral summit in Moscow before a G20 meeting in St. Petersburg in September.

The White House has left it vague on whether Obama will come to the face-to-face talks.

A U.S. Senate panel voted unanimously on Thursday to seek trade or other sanctions against Russia or any other country that offers asylum to Snowden.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday narrowly rejected a plan to limit the National Security Agency's ability to collect electronic information, including phone call records.

Snowden's father on Friday blasted U.S. lawmakers for not reining in the electronic spy program made public by his son, accusing them of being "complicit or negligent."

Bruce Fein, an attorney for Snowden's father Lonnie, said he had not yet received a response from Holder to a letter he sent to the attorney general suggesting developing "parameters for a fair trial" for Edward Snowden. Fein said Lonnie Snowden had not had any direct communication with his son since April.

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball and Tabassum Zakaria in Washington and Alissa de Carbonnel in Moscow, Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Claudia Parsons and David Storey)