(MENAFN- Arab Times) Jordan's King Abdullah II met his Saudi counterpart in Riyadh Sunday for talks as both nations participate in a US-led bombing campaign against Islamic State group extremists in Syria. The official Saudi Press Agency said King Abdullah received the Jordanian monarch at his palace. Since September both kingdoms, along with Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, have been taking part in American-led air strikes against the IS jihadists in Syria.
Jordan's king warned this month that the fight against IS is a "third world war". The group has declared a "caliphate" in parts of Syria and Iraq, the nation bordering both Jordan and Saudi Arabia. IS militants have been accused of widespread atrocities, including beheading Western hostages.
Saudi involvement in the coalition has raised concerns about possible retaliation there, while analysts say Jordan has been placed in danger by joining the international effort. "During the meeting they discussed overall events at the regional and international level," and how to strengthen bilateral ties, SPA said.
On Thursday Saudi Arabia said it had arrested three alleged IS supporters for shooting and wounding a Danish citizen in Riyadh. In November, the kingdom blamed IS-linked suspects for killing seven members of the minority Shiite community. Jordan, which shares a border with Syria as well as Iraq, is grappling with its own home-grown Islamist question. It also hosts more than 600,000 Syrian refugees.
Captured
Meanwhile, al-Qaeda-linked and other Islamic fighters captured two key Syrian army bases on Monday in the northwestern province of Idlib after two days of intense battles with government troops that killed dozens on both sides, activists said. The fall of the two bases - Wadi Deif and Hamidiyeh, both located near the town of Maaret al-Numan - is a significant blow to the Syrian army, which had managed to hold on to them for more than two years, repelling repeated attacks by an array of opposition groups.
The battles for "these two bases were exhausting the rebel factions," said Hussam Abu Bakr, a spokesman for the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham group, one of the strongest rebel factions in northern Syria. He said his group captured Hamidiyeh base.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and an Idlib-based activist who goes by the name of Mohammed al-Sayid said members of the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and other rebel factions captured the Wadi Deif base Monday morning and the nearby Hamidiyeh base in the early afternoon.
Abu Bakr told The Associated Press via Skype that government forces first withdrew from Wadi Deif to Hamidiyeh and then from Hamidiyeh to the nearby village of Bsida.
Then, the rebels captured Bsida, forcing government forces to gather in the village of Maar Hattat, which is now being besieged, said Abu Bakr. "There are more deaths and more prisoners every hour," he added. The Observatory said that at least 31 government soldiers and 12 opposition fighters have been killed in the clashes since Sunday. The group, which tracks the fighting in Syria through a network of activists on the ground, said that rebel factions also captured about 15 government troops.
Government forces have suffered enormous losses at the hands of Islamic extremists in northern Syria. Earlier this year, members of the Islamic State group took over a string of government air bases in the northern province of Raqqa, slaughtering scores of Syrian soldiers after seizing them. A Twitter account run by the Nusra Front in Idlib province said fighters are now removing mines from the area after the "Wadi Deif camp was liberated."
Rebels and the Nusra Front control much of the countryside of Idlib province while government forces dominate the provincial capital - also called Idlib. The capture of the bases came a day after rebels and Nusra Front fighters took over seven government checkpoints around Wadi Deif and Hamidiyeh.
Idlib-based activist Asaad Kanjo said the government still holds the town of Ariha in Idlib as well as the Qarmid base near the provincial capital.
The Nusra Front has become one of the most powerful factions in Idlib province after it last month defeated the moderate Syria Revolutionaries Front headed by Jamal Maarouf, who has since fled the area.
The latest round of fighting came as European Union foreign ministers met in Brussels on Monday to discuss ways to help implement a UN plan for a localized cease-fire in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.
The foreign ministers met informally Sunday with the UN special envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura. The UN has been trying to bring about a strategic de-escalation of violence in Syria to permit the delivery of humanitarian aid and set the stage for peace talks.
Arrived
In Tehran, Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaqi arrived on Monday for talks with key ally Iran, his country's main backer in its civil war. Halaqi was accompanied by the oil, industry, health and electricity ministers, state news agency IRNA reported, without specifying the duration of the trip. On Tuesday he will hold talks with Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri, the government's website said.
Halaqi's visit comes one week after Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem held talks in Tehran and said the Islamic republic would back a Russian plan to end his country's more than three-year conflict. Moscow is hoping to relaunch peace talks for the war-torn country that would include meetings between government officials and members of the opposition.
The visit also comes as UN Syrian envoy Steffan de Mistura is trying to broker a ceasefire in the northern city of Aleppo and as the Syrian army lost control Monday of two strategic bases in the northwest.
De Mistura briefed the European Union on his efforts on the weekend and on Monday the EU said it backs the plan as one of the few good options left in a conflict that has claimed more than 200,000 lives.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Syrian army lost control Monday of the Hamdiyeh and Wadi al-Deif bases in northwestern Idlib province to al-Qaeda and other Islamist groups.
Iran is the main regional ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Tehran has sent military advisers to assist his forces in fighting against rebels and jihadist militants.
Tehran also helps bankroll Syria's economy, devastated by sanctions and the fallout from the nearly four-year war, which has also displaced 7.2 million people and forced 3.2 million to flee the country.
Tehran last year offered Damascus two credit lines totalling $4.6 billion to pay for imports of energy and wheat.
Pledged
Meanwhile, European Union countries pledged their assistance Monday to help rebuild basic services and local government in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo if a UN plan to halt the fighting there can be implemented.
Success of the plan "is crucial for political reasons, for security reasons, for the refugees," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said. "And also as a symbol, of what Syria can be and what Syria should not be."
Meeting in Brussels, foreign ministers of the 28 EU nations expressed full commitment to UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura's efforts to seek localized "freezes of hostility" in Syria.
On Sunday, the ministers held a separate meeting with de Mistura.
In a statement, the ministers said "the EU will seek ways to provide practical support to his efforts, notably by contributing to the revival of local governance and administration, to the restoration of basic services and to the return to normalcy in areas of reduced violence, in particular in Aleppo, as conditions allow."
However, the ministers expressed serious concerns over what they said was intensified military action against opposition forces by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which they called a threat to the UN plan.
The ministers also said that for there to be a reduction of violence, effective monitoring is needed, preferably under UN Security Council auspices.
"The EU recalls that cases of forced surrender imposed by the Assad regime through starvation sieges were labelled fallaciously as local cease-fires in the past," the ministers said.
The European Union has mobilized 3 billion euros ($3.7 billion) to date for humanitarian assistance to Syria and neighboring countries affected by the 3-1/2 years of fighting there. The bloc views de Mistura's efforts to achieve a strategic de-escalation of violence as a basis for a political process that could lead to the end of the Assad regime.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is making his first visit to the United Arab Emirates since taking office in early September as he seeks to expand cooperation with the wealthy, Western-allied Gulf nation.
A statement from al-Abadi's office on Monday says he was greeted on arrival by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and thanked the Emirati official for his country's support in the fight against the Islamic State group.
The crown prince is an influential figure in the seven-state federation. He is next-in-line to succeed his half-brother, Emirati President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who has been out of the public spotlight since suffering a stroke earlier this year. Abadi is also expected to also meet Dubai's ruler and Emirati and Iraqi businessmen during his visit.
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