BBC News with Sue Montgomery.

The decision by the United States to give direct military assistance to the rebels in Syria has provoked strong reaction around the world. Russia expressed deep scepticism about the US assertion that Syrian government forces had used chemical weapons and said arming the rebels would worsen the violence. From Washington, Paul Adams.

The White House says there is a new urgency to the Syrian conflict because of an influx of Hezbollah fighters as well as what it now believes is firm intelligence that President Assad has used chemical weapons. But the Obama administration won’t say what the new assistance will actually consist of. Most people assume that’ll include weapons possibly up to and including anti-tank missiles. But officials are reluctant even to describe it as arming the rebels.

In Syria itself, the foreign ministry has denounced as lies the US assertion that it has used chemical weapons. The leader of the main rebel military group, Salim Idriss, welcomed Washington’s move and said the rebels needed anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons immediately.

Polls have closed in Iran where people have been voting to choose a successor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. There were long queues at some polling stations and voting hours were extended. The main pro- reform leaders were not allowed to stand. Here is Richard Galpin.

There does seem to have been a lot of enthusiasm amongst voters to cast their ballots in this election, prompted in part by the sudden emergence of the cleric Hassan Rouhani as in effect the opposition candidate. Even though he is only viewed as a moderate conservative, he was quite outspoken during the campaign, not least calling for relations to be restored with Western countries, which have imposed sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme. At rallies, he accused the hardliners who controlled Iran of bringing the country to its knees.