Israel, Jordan agree US-brokered solar power for water deal

RTL – AFP, 22 November 2021 

Jordan, which signed a US-brokered solar power for water deal with Israel, is
one of the world's most water-deficient nations / © AFP/File

Jordan will provide solar power to Israel, which will in turn supply desalinated water to its desert neighbour, under a declaration of intent the two countries signed Monday. 

Ministers from the neighbouring countries inked the US-brokered agreement at a Dubai Expo event joined by John Kerry, the US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. 

"The Middle East is on the frontline of the climate crisis," Kerry said in a statement. "Only by working together can countries in the region rise to the scale of the challenge." 

The United Arab Emirates, which last year normalised relations with Israel, will reportedly build the solar power plant, the value of which was not disclosed. 

Israeli Energy Minister Karine Elharrar said the Israel-Jordan agreement was the "most significant" since the formers enemies signed a peace treaty in 1994. 

"The benefit of this agreement is not only in the form of green electricity or desalinated water, but also the strengthening of relations with the neighbour that has the longest border with Israel." 

Feasibility studies for the project are due to start next year. 

Jordan is one of the world's most water-deficient nations and its cooperation on water with Israel dates back to before the two established formal relations. 

Israel is also a hot, dry country, but its advanced desalination technology has opened opportunities for selling fresh water. 

The declaration of intent says the Jordan photovoltaic plant with a capacity of 600 MW will export green power to Israel, which will supply Jordan with up to 200 million cubic metres of desalinated water. 

Water diplomacy 

Jordan, nearly landlocked, faces dire water prospects as its population expands and temperatures rise. 

Experts say the future cooperation could help improve relations, which Jordan's King Abdullah has described as a "cold peace". 

Under their 1994 peace treaty, the Jewish state recognises Jordan's oversight of Muslim holy sites in east Jerusalem, which has since 1967 been occupied by Israel and was later annexed. 

But there are often demonstrations in Jordan in solidarity with the Palestinians. 

The recent deals come after relations had cooled under Israel's former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who took over in June, has made strengthening ties with Amman a priority. 

Even when Israel and Jordan were enemies following the 1948 war that led to Israel's creation, they held water cooperation meetings that helped shape their peace deal. 

They announced in July that Israel would sell 50 million cubic metres of water a year to Jordan, doubling what it already supplies, and in October agreed to raise the amount further.

Last Israeli farmers leave enclave after Jordan deal ends

Yahoo –AFP, April 30, 2020

Israeli farmers will no longer be allowed to enter an agricultural enclave in
neighbouring Jordan, following the expiry of Israel’s lease on the border land
(AFP Photo/MENAHEM KAHANA)

Tsofar (Israel) (AFP) - Israeli farmers left an agricultural enclave in neighbouring Jordan possibly for the last time Thursday, as the extension of a lease enabling their use of the border land expired.

Ghumar, known as Tsofar in Hebrew, is a Jordanian territory south of the Dead Sea that was occupied by Israel during the Six Day War of 1967.

Under the 1994 peace deal, Jordan retained sovereignty over the area, along with another territory called Baqura, seized when Israeli forces infiltrated Jordan in 1950.

As part of the 1994 agreement, Jordan agreed to lease both places to Israel for a renewable 25 years, with a one-year notice period for either party.

The lease expired in November after Jordan's King Abdullah II notified Israel that it wanted to take back the two areas.

His decision came as the country suffers high unemployment, inflation and poverty, exacerbated by the presence of hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the war in neighbouring Syria.

Despite the peace agreement, relations with Israel have been tense in recent years.

Baqura, or Naharayim in Hebrew, was reclaimed in November.

But the kingdom gave Israeli farmers six months to finish growing their crops in Ghumar, a period that expired on Thursday.

Erez Gibori, a farmer from Ghumar whose fields were in the enclave, told AFP Jordan's decision to take back the lands went "against the spirit of the peace agreement."

Gibori said the last farmers, who had grown peppers in the enclave, had left it by Thursday afternoon.

Opinion polls have repeatedly found that the peace treaty with Israel is overwhelmingly opposed by Jordanians, more than half of whom are of Palestinian origin.

Oman calls on Arabs to ease Israel's 'fears for its future'

Yahoo – AFP, April 6, 2019

Oman's minister of foreign affairs Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah (C) caused a stir in
Jordan when he told a panel that Arabs must help ease Israel's "fears for its
future' (AFP Photo/Khalil MAZRAAWI)

Suweimeh (Jordan) (AFP) - A top Omani government official on Saturday said Arabs must take initiatives to make Israel overcome "fears for its future" in the region, drawing criticism from Jordan.

The remarks by Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, the minister responsible for foreign affairs in Oman, came on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum hosted by Jordan on the shores of the Dead Sea.

"The West has offered Israel political, economic and military support and it now holds all the means of power... but despite that it fears for its future as a non-Arab country surrounded by 400 million Arabs," he said.

"I believe that we Arabs must be able to look into this issue and try to ease those fears that Israel has through initiatives and real deals between us and Israel," he told a panel discussing geopolitics.

The panel's moderator, journalist Hadley Gamble, interrupted him to ask if the best solution to the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict is "recognising Israel and its right to exist".

The minister said no.

"Not recognising, but we want them themselves to feel that there are no threats to their future."

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, whose country is the only Arab nation along with Egypt to have a peace treaty with Israel, dismissed the remarks saying "the issue is that there is an occupation" of Arab land.

"The Arab world has recognised Israel's right to exist. The Palestinians themselves recognised the Israeli right to exist... that is not the issue," Safadi told the panel.

"The issue is that there is an occupation. Is this occupation going to end or not?

Israel, Safadi said, must "withdraw from Arab lands occupied since 1967 and allow" the creation of a Palestinian state. "This is the issue," he said.

"If they (Israel) say they are not comfortable, that is not my problem," said Safadi.

"The problem is not with Arabs giving assurances... the problem is with Israel doing what is right for peace," he added.

"Israel... is not doing the right thing. Actually it is doing more of the wrong things by suffocating Palestinians," the Jordanian foreign minister said, referring to the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip.

"Gaza, is probably as you heard many times, the world's largest prison," he added.

In recent months, Israel has been courting Gulf Arab states.

In February, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met one-on-one with Bin Alawi at an international conference in Warsaw, attended by officials from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.

In October last year, Netanyahu held surprise talks with Oman's Sultan Qaboos in Muscat -- raising Palestinian fears of a normalisation of ties.

Last year Bin Alawi told a regional conference in Bahrain it might be "time for Israel to be treated the same (as states in the Middle East) and also bear the same obligations".

Bahrain endorsed the remarks which at the time were said to be aimed at moving the Israeli-Palestinian "narrative from intractability to a new focus of pragmatism".

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"Peace in Israel"

The Israel Channelings (13) - Sep/Oct, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

Tel Aviv - ISRAEL (2) - Oct 8, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)
The PEACE choir - Pineal tones - Oct 10, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

The Final 2015 Kryon Tour - Oct 11, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)




"THE BRIDGE OF SWORDS"– Sep  29, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“… What have we told you about the bridge? Actually, not much except that in crossing the bridge, the old energy ones were not going to like it. Old energy does not want you to escape! Old energy doesn't want you to cross the bridge because it can't cross. Did you know that? It can't cross. The old paradigms of Human nature that you've known all of these millenniums have to stay on the old side of the bridge. It cannot cross, for the bridge rejects all that is not in love, compassion and light. Those things that are dark, including Human nature of the past, will not be able to go. But the ones I speak to right now are already on the bridge. That was your design, old soul, and those are the words that are ringing in your ears to this day and the ones given at the wind of birth, that this might happen in your lifetime. So what's going to happen next?

Swords

Let us talk about the swords: When you hear the word sword, the first thing that occurs to you is battle. The Bridge of Swords is a battle and we told you that as well. Swords are metaphoric and they mean many things, so let us describe the things we mean them to say to you.

Number one: They are indeed a weapon in a battle. There is a battle coming. "Kryon, does that mean there's going to be a war?" Potentially, yes. Right now we will tell you that the Middle East cooks itself. You've noticed, haven't you? What do you know about the Middle East, dear one? Let's start examining things for a moment. What energy did you grow up in? What was the energy of the Middle East? In the '40s, what was the energy? With the establishment of the state of Israel, you built a wall of hate, both sides. The wall was so thick that the children of both sides were taught to hate one another as soon as they were able to understand the language. They were told who their enemies were. Now, where were you then?

Some of you weren't here yet. By the time you arrived, in your youth, were you aware of the Middle East? Not particularly. "What's the hatred about?" you might ask. What if I told you it's about a family feud? Two sons of a Jewish master are involved. One founded the Arabs and one remained a Jew. They don't want to hear this, but they are all Jews. (Don't tell them this.)

If you look at the lineage, it's pretty obvious and yet it's a complete and total set-up for either solution or war. The set-up would have this world ending in a conflagration that would have been brought about by this hatred. That's in the prophecy of Nostradamus and your scripture, but it is no longer the prophecy of the planet. Yet the hatred still exists. The hatred is as great today as it was then, but where was all the terrorism 40 years ago? It was isolated.

Those in Israel and Palestine and surrounding areas took the brunt of it, but now it's seemingly everywhere - and you're worried. Why would this be? The answer is that the old energy was happy to have this hatred contained, for it would keep it going and never involve outsiders. Outsiders tend to bring unwanted light to the party. Suddenly, the whole earth is involved and can see the entire scenario before them. The old guard wants war, just like all the eons before them. The ones on the bridge are holding the light and showing the earth how to cross. Even many younger ones in Israel and Palestine and Iran are holding light! It's all around the old guard and they are furious, for they are losing the "battle of hatred." …”

Dead Sea's revival with Red Sea canal edges closer to reality

Yahoo – AFP, Marie WOLFROM, March 18, 2018

Evaporation ponds at the southern part of the Dead Sea where both sodium
chloride and potassium salts are produced (AFP Photo/MENAHEM KAHANA)

Ghor al-Haditha (Jordan) (AFP) - Israel and Jordan have long pursued a common goal to stop the Dead Sea from shrinking while slaking their shared thirst for drinking water with a pipeline from the Red Sea some 200 kilometres away.

Geopolitical tensions have stalled efforts to break ground on the ambitious project for years, but the end of the latest diplomatic spat has backers hoping a final accord may now be in sight.

The degradation of the Dead Sea, on the border of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian West Bank, began in the 1960s when water began to be heavily diverted from the Jordan River.

"Before 1967, the water was just a 10-minute walk from my house," said Musa Salim al-Athem, a farmer who grows tomatoes on the banks on the Jordan side.

"Now it takes an hour," he said, standing amid the resulting lunar landscape of spectacular salt sculptures, gaping sinkholes and craters.

"Only the sea can fill up the sea."

"Since 1950, the amount flowing in the Jordan has dropped from 1.2 billion cubic metres per year (42 billion cubic feet) to less than 200 million," said Frederic Maurel, an engineering expert at the French development agency AFD.

Heavy production of potash, used for making fertiliser, has also accelerated evaporation that has seen the sea's surface area shrink by a third since 1960.

Experts say water levels are falling one metre (three feet) a year, and warn it could dry out completely within 30 years.

Palestinian refugees at the al-Baqa'a refugee camp near Amman. Jordan is
determined to press ahead with the project to cope with the needs of a rising population
which has been swelled by about one million refugees fleeing war in Syria (AFP Photo/
Khalil MAZRAAWI)

'Economic treasure'

Already 100 years ago, Theodor Herzl, the father of modern political Zionism, had envisaged filling the Dead Sea via a canal dug to the Mediterranean.

The sea's natural beauty and mineral-rich black mud have also provided a source of tourism revenue.

"The Dead Sea has historical, biblical, natural, touristic, medical and industrial values that make it an invaluable cultural, environmental and economic treasure," said Avner Adin, a specialist in water science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

After years of studies, the $1.1 billion Red Sea "Peace Conduit" deal was signed by Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian authorities in 2013.

The project, located entirely on Jordanian territory, includes a desalination plant near Aqaba.

After producing drinking water, the remaining highly saline liquid will be sent by pipeline to fill the Dead Sea, powering two hydroelectric plants along the way.

A subsequent 2015 deal would see Israel get 35 billion cubic metres of potable water from the desalination plant for its parched southern regions.

The mostly desert Jordan, for its part, would get up to 50 billion cubic metres of freshwater from the Sea of Galilee.

Israel also agreed to sell 32 billion cubic metres to the Palestinian authorities.

Jordan announced in November 2016 that it had chosen five international consortiums to build the first phase of the canal.

But talks on how to finance the deal, which calls for $400 million of public funding, and geopolitical flare-ups have kept the project from moving forward.

Experts say water levels are falling one metre a year, and warn it could dry out 

completely within thirty years (AFP Photo/MENAHEM KAHANA)

'Diplomatic hazards'

Some $120 million has already been pledged by donors including the US and Japan, while France's AFD agency has secured the backing of the EU and some member states for $140 million in preferential loans to Jordan.

Talks were frozen last year after an Israeli security guard shot and killed two Jordanians at the Israeli embassy in Amman, prompting a diplomatic standoff that ended only in January.

"We have never been so close to starting the project," Maurel said. "It only needs a final push by the Jordanian and Israeli authorities."

A diplomatic source in Amman said the project remained essential for the region given the environmental and economic stakes, "but it's still at the mercy of diplomatic hazards."

For Adin at the Hebrew University, "It seems to be that the situation is improving. The main obstacle in my mind could be financial."

Officials in Jordan say they are determined to press ahead with or without Israel to cope with the needs of a rising population which has been swelled by about one million refugees fleeing the war in neighbouring Syria.

"We are proceeding with the project because desalination eventually is the future of Jordan when it comes to water," said Iyad Dahiyat, secretary general of the country's water authority.

"Water is part of the stability of the kingdom itself," he added. "It's a national security issue."

Clerics denounce 'IS' militants after Jordanian pilot's death

A prominent Sunni Islam cleric has called for the execution of 'IS' militants who burned a Jordanian pilot to death. Other influential Imams called burning the pilot un-Islamic.

Deutsche Welle, 4 Feb 2015

Ahmed al-Tayeb, head of the 1,000-year-old Al-Azhar center for Sunni Islam in Egypt, called for the execution of "Islamic State" (IS) militants, one day after the jihadists publicized the video of a Jordanian pilot being burnedalive.

The Egyptian cleric expressed "strong dismay at this cowardly act," and said the perpetrators should be punished through "killing, crucifixion or chopping of limbs." He termed the Islamic State a "satanic" organization that spread corruption on earth and waged war against God.

IS had earlier posted a religious edict on Twitter saying Islam permitted burning an infidel to death, as a justification for burning Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh while he was still alive.

'Only God tortures by fire'

Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh
was captured by the IS last year

Al-Kaseasbeh's barbaric death apparently served to weaken IS' popularity, but it was not clear whether conservative clerics condemned the killing itself or the method used to end his life.

"Burning is an abominable crime rejected by Islamic law regardless of its causes," Saudi cleric Salman al-Odah wrote on his Twitter page, adding that "Only God tortures by fire."

"Even if the Islamic State says Muath had bombed, and burned and killed us, and we punished him in the way he did to us, we say, okay but why film the video in this shocking way?" Abu Sayaf, a Jordanian Salafist cleric who spent ten years in Amman's prisons, told Reuters news agency.

Islamic State militants released a video on Tuesday, which purportedly showed the pilot Muath al-Kaseasbeh being burned to death. The Jordanian national was captured by the jihadists last year in Syria while flying on a US-led coalition mission against the IS.

Amman had attempted to exchange jihadi prisoner Sajida al-Rishawi for al-Kaseasbeh, but those negotiations fell through after Jordanian officials said IS failed to prove he was still alive.

mg/kms (dpa, AFP)

Related Article:

Jordan executes jihadists after IS murder of pilot

Jordan executes jihadists after IS murder of pilot

Yahoo – AFP, Kamal Taha and Mussa Hattar, 4 Feb 2015

Safi (centre), the father of Jordanian pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh, killed by Islamic

 State group militants, is helped during a mourning ceremony at the headquarters

 of the family's clan in the Jordanian city of Karak on February 4, 2015 (AFP Photo/

Khalil Mazraawi)

Amman (AFP) - Jordan executed two death-row Iraqi jihadists, including a woman, on Wednesday after vowing to avenge the burning alive of one of its fighter pilots by the Islamic State group.

Would-be suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi and Al-Qaeda member Ziad al-Karboli were hanged before dawn at a prison south of the capital, the government said.

Maaz al-Kassasbeh, who was

captured by Islamic State (IS)

jihadist group on December 24

 in Syria and later burned alive

(AFP Photo)

Jordan had promised to begin executing Islamic extremists on death row in response to the murder of Maaz al-Kassasbeh, who was captured by IS when his plane went down in Syria in December.

Jordan's King Abdullah II cut short a visit to Washington after a gruesome video of the airman's killing emerged, describing Kassasbeh as a hero and vowing to take the battle to IS.

Egypt-based Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's most prestigious seat of learning, called for the "killing, crucifixion or chopping of the limbs" of IS militants, expressing outrage over their "cowardly act".

Rishawi, 44, was sentenced to death for her participation in triple hotel bombings in Amman in 2005 that killed 60 people.

IS had offered to spare Kassasbeh's life and free Japanese journalist Kenji Goto -- who was later beheaded -- if she were released.

Jordan had on Tuesday vowed to avenge the killing of Kassasbeh, hours after the harrowing video emerged online purporting to show the caged 26-year-old F-16 fighter pilot engulfed in flames.

Sajida al-Rishawi, a would-be Iraqi female

 suicide bomber, standing in a cell at the

State Security court during her trial in

 the Jordanian capital Amman, 2006

(AFP Photo)

The video -- the most brutal yet in a series of recorded killings of hostages by IS -- prompted global revulsion and vows of unwavering international efforts to combat the Sunni Muslim extremist group.

The killing sparked outrage in Jordan and demonstrations in Amman and the city of Karak, the home of Kassasbeh's influential tribe.

The executions came just weeks after Jordan ended an eight-year moratorium on the death penalty, drawing criticism from human rights groups.

Rishawi was closely linked to IS's predecessor organisation in Iraq and seen as an important symbol for the jihadists.

Karboli was sentenced to death in 2007 on terrorism charges, including the killing of a Jordanian in Iraq.

Jordan, a crucial ally of Washington in the Middle East, is one of several Arab countries that have joined a US-led coalition carrying out air strikes against IS in Syria and Iraq.

The New York Times, quoting US officials, reported Wednesday that the United Arab Emirates had suspended its participation in December after Kassasbeh's capture due to fears for the safety of its pilots.

Senior Jordanian army officers gather

 during a mourning ceremony for pilot 

Maaz al-Kassasbeh in Karak on February

4, 2015 (AFP Photo/Khalil Mazraawi)

There was no official confirmation of the report.

'Vile murder'

Jordan promised to avenge the pilot's murder, with government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani saying: "Jordan's response will be earth-shattering."

US President Barack Obama, who hosted King Abdullah in a hastily organised Oval Office meeting, led international condemnation of the murder, decrying the "cowardice and depravity" of IS.

He said the brutal killing would only strengthen international resolve to defeat the extremists.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has sent warplanes to join the US-led strikes against IS in Iraq, denounced "the sickening murder".

"We will not stop until these evil extremists and their poisonous ideology are defeated," he added.

The opposition Syrian National Coalition offered condolences for the execution of the airman "whose blood mingled with the soil of our beloved Syria".

US President Barack Obama meets with 

King Abdullah II of Jordan in the Oval Office

 of the White House in Washington, DC, 

February 3, 2015 (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)

Kassasbeh was captured in December when his jet crashed over northern Syria on a mission that was part of the coalition air campaign against the jihadists.

Jordanian state television suggested he was killed on January 3, before IS offered to spare his life and free Goto in return for Rishawi's release.

The highly choreographed 22-minute video released Tuesday shows Kassasbeh at a table recounting coalition operations against IS, with flags from the various Western and Arab countries in the alliance projected in the background.

It then shows Kassasbeh dressed in an orange jumpsuit and surrounded by armed and masked IS fighters in camouflage.

It cuts to him standing inside a cage and apparently soaked in petrol before a masked jihadist lights a trail of flame that runs to the cage and burns him alive.

'Misguided ideology'

Saudi Arabia, the spiritual home of Islam and another member of the coalition, condemned the "misguided ideology" behind Kassasbeh's killing and accused groups like IS of seeking "to distort the values of Islam".

The UAE said the actions of IS "represent epidemics that must be eradicated by civilised societies without delay".

Iran condemned the "inhuman and un-Islamic act".

IS had previously beheaded two US journalists, an American aid worker and two British aid workers in similar videos.

Anwar Tarawneh, the wife of Jordanian pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh, weeps during a

 rally for her husband in the Jordanian capital Amman on February 3, 2015 

(AFP Photo/Khalil Mazraawi)

Shiraz Maher, from the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation at King's College, London, described the latest footage as "simply the most horrific, disgusting thing I have seen from Islamic State in the last two years".

IS has seized swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq and last year declared a "caliphate" in areas under its control, imposing its brutal interpretation of Islam and committing widespread atrocities.

Kassasbeh was the first serviceman from the coalition captured since it launched strikes against IS last year.

The Jordan Times said in an editorial that the country would rally against the "ruthless" murder of the pilot "who is now the son of all Jordanians".

Arab states offer to help attack Isis, diplomats say

Countries believed to include the UAE and Saudi Arabia are prepared to fight Islamic State in major boost to the US

theguardian.com, Ian Black and Martin Chulov, Sunday 14 September 2014

John Kerry said the US had Arab allies who were prepared to join in strikes
on Isis. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AP

Several Arab states, believed to include the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, have offered to help attack Islamic State (Isis) targets in Syria and Iraq, in a major boost for US efforts to build a broad coalition against the Sunni insurgent group.

The offers, reported by senior western diplomats, came in the wake of widespread international condemnation of the murder of the British hostage, David Haines, and a pledge by Australia to help the military effort. John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said on Sunday he was "extremely encouraged" by pledges made so far. Kerry is to join Iraqi, Arab and other western ministers at a conference in Paris on Monday to agree ways to support the new Baghdad government in the war against the jihadi group. Arab participation in military action would help give a wider sense of legitimacy to the campaign.

US officials declined to say which countries had offered help, but one appeared to be the UAE, whose aircraft recently bombed Islamist militia targets in Libya from bases in Egypt.

A senior western source told the Guardian that Saudi Arabia felt so threatened by Isis that it was prepared to act in a frontline role. "There is a very real possibility that we could have the Saudi air force bombing targets inside Syria. That is a remarkable development, and something the US would be very pleased to see."

Another senior official said that Saudi Arabia was now far more willing to play an open role in the campaign against Isis than during the 1991 Gulf war and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In both previous campaigns, Riyadh allowed its military bases to be used by US forces, but did not commit its own troops or airmen.

This time, Riyadh sees Isis as a direct threat to Saudi Arabia. "They actually see themselves as the real target. "They know that they have to step up, and they are ready to, from what we can see," the official said.

A US official told the New York Times that the US Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, had received offers from several Arab states. "There have been offers both to Centcom and to the Iraqis of Arab countries taking more aggressive kinetic action."

France has indicated that it will back US air strikes against Isis after its president, François Hollande, expressed support for the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, and moves to undercut Sunni support for Isis. But Turkey, which borders on both Iraq and Syria, has quietly made clear that it would not take part or allow its bases to be used for combat operations – a disappointment coming from Nato's only Muslim member.

Isis fighters during a parade in Raqqa, Syria. Photograph: AP

Syrian ministers have repeated calls for Damascus to join the coalition, though the US and Britain – backed by their Gulf allies – have insisted president Bashar al-Assad cannot take part because he has "lost all legitimacy" in the course of a war that has cost 200,000 lives.

Kerry said the US would not coordinate any attacks with Syria, but added in an interview on CBS's Face the Nation: "We will certainly want to deconflict and make certain that they're (Syria) not about to do something that they might regret even more seriously."

Britain will be represented at the Paris talks by Philip Hammond, the foreign secretary, with David Cameron facing conflicting pressures over whether to participate in air strikes or restrict the country to delivering humanitarian aid, surveillance, and arming and training Kurdish and Iraqi forces. Cameron made clear on Sunday that he supports US strikes and "whatever steps are necessary" while keeping options open. The Haines murder may change the dynamic of the arguments.

Details of how the anti-Isis campaign will be waged are still sketchy, though the US reportedly discussed basing and overflight rights at talks in Jeddah last week with the Saudis and the other Gulf states as well as Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. All expressed support for a "coordinated military campaign".

"I can tell you right here and now that we have countries in this region, countries outside of this region, in addition to the United States, all of whom are prepared to engage in military assistance, in actual strikes if that is what it requires," Kerry said.

Officials familiar with high level discussions between Riyadh and Washington say both sides are determined to avoid the perception in the Sunni world that the upcoming campaign will benefit Iran and its Shia and Alawite proxies. "The Saudis are the power base of the Sunni world and it is time for them to provide an alternative to Isis," said a regional official. "They know what is expected of them and this time you will see them acting directly."

Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff, said that while air strikes would weaken Isis, "it's going to be Iraqi and other boots on the ground" that would the key to defeating the terrorists.

"To destroy Isil[Isis] we need to have a force, an anvil against which they will be pushed," McDonough said on CNN's State of the Union.

"It will be a coalition that includes not only our friends in Europe and Asia but also our partners in the region, Muslim states, Sunni states. We're going to use our unique capabilities, air power, ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] and our training ability to make sure Iraqi forces on one side and Syrian opposition forces on the other side of the border can take the fight to Isil."

Obama's condemnation of Haines's murder was echoed in other capitals, with the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, calling the killing "an abhorrent act of barbaric violence beyond all limits of human civilisation."

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Four Turks Arrested in Poso Over Islamic State Link

Indonesian Government Officially Bans ISIS

Pope calls for Syria peace at start of Mideast tour

Yahoo  - AFP, Jean-Louis De La Vaissiere, 24 May 2014

Pope Francis (L) sits in a golf cart with King Abdullah II of Jordan (R) as they
 visit Bethany, a site on the eastern bank of the River Jordan where some
Christians believe Jesus was baptised, on May 24, 2014

Amman (AFP) - Pope Francis made an urgent plea Saturday for peace in war-torn Syria as he kicked off a three-day pilgrimage to the Middle East.

And he called for religious freedom to be upheld throughout a region ravaged by war and bloodshed, where a dwindling Christian population faces daily persecution.

As he walked off the plane onto a red carpet at Amman airport, his white robes flapping in the hot desert wind, he was greeted by officials and two children dressed in traditional costume who handed him bouquets of irises, the national flower of Jordan.

Pope Francis (2nd-L) is greeted by Jordan's King

 Abdullah II (R) and his wife Queen Rania (L) 

at the Royal Palace in Amman on May 24,

2014 (AFP Photo/Andrew Medichini )

On a trip which continues Sunday in the Palestinian territories and Israel, Francis reserved his biggest public event for Jordan, an open-air mass at Amman's main international stadium where he was joyously welcomed by 40,000 pilgrims.

Entering the stadium in an open-topped white jeep, he smiled and waved at the crowds, his white skullcap flying off in the breeze.

Babies and toddlers were passed through the crowd to be held by him for a moment and blessed, as thousands of balloons were released into the air.

"Peace is not something which can be bought, it is a gift to be sought patiently and to be crafted through the actions, great and small, of our everyday lives," he told the crowd packed into a sea of blue and red chairs on a sweltering May afternoon.

His landmark first visit to the Holy Land, billed by the Vatican as a "pilgrimage of prayer," is chiefly aimed at boosting ties with Muslims and Jews, as well as seeking closer unity with Orthodox Christian leaders.

'Humanity and wisdom'

"Lasting peace for the entire region... requires that a peaceful solution be found to the crisis in Syria, as well as a just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," the pope said at the royal palace, ahead of a meeting with Syrian refugees on the banks of the River Jordan.

Syria's civil war, which began in 2011, is estimated to have claimed at least 162,000 lives and forced another 2.7 million people to flee to neighbouring countries, 450,000 of them Christians.

Jordan's King Abdullah II told Francis his "humanity and wisdom" could contribute to easing the crisis confronting Syrian refugees and the burden on host countries like Jordan.

Abdullah himself drove the pontiff in a golf cart to the reputed site of Jesus' baptism on the River Jordan, chatting to the 77-year-old Francis squeezed in beside him, another sign of the pontiff's famed informality.

Pope Francis leads (R) a mass at Amman 

stadium in the Jordanian capital on May 24,

2014 (AFP Photo/Khalil Mazraawi)

The pope stood for a few minutes in silent prayer on the riverbank, his head bowed, before being driven by the king, once again in the cart, to speak and pray with some of the 600,000 refugees hosted by Jordan and hear their accounts of suffering in Syria.

Speaking earlier, Francis urged respect for religious freedom in a region where the Holy See has called for an end to the ongoing persecution of Christians.

"Religious freedom is, in fact, a fundamental human right and I cannot fail to express my hope that it will be upheld throughout the Middle East and the entire world," he said.

Thousands of Christians around the world are killed every year because of their faith, and persecution has become more widespread in countries torn by conflicts involving radical Islamists, including Syria and Iraq.

Ahead of his arrival in a region roiled by political and religious division, the Argentine pope said he felt like the biblical prophet Daniel heading to the lions' den.

"I feel like Daniel, but now I know that the lions don't bite," he told reporters travelling with him on his plane.

Open-topped tour

At the stadium mass, he revelled in the raucous greeting of pilgrims as he toured the crowd in his open-topped vehicle, reaching out to grasp hands as people pressed around his slowly moving jeep on all sides, prompting scuffles with the security detail jogging alongside.

Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, 

Bartholomew I (C) prays at the Church of

 the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City

on May 23, 2014 (AFP Photo/Gali Tibbon)

"This pope is special," said 77-year-old Sister Rachel, highlighting his dedication to the downtrodden.

"He only wants to see the poor and the diseased. He is the protector of the helpless."

The pope will take a short helicopter flight early on Sunday across the River Jordan to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus in the West Bank.

There he will hold a mass and begin his two-day tour of the Palestinian territories and Israel.

Francis said the main reason for his visit is a historic meeting in Jerusalem with the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, and "to pray for peace in that land, which has suffered so much".

Key events in Pope Francis' visit to the Middle East, with photo

and map (AFP Photo/V Breschi / J Jacobsen, vb/jj/gil)

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Pope Francis holds open-air mass in Amman (Video)