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US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Thursday that the conflict raging in Syria could cleave it into rival enclaves, as he prepares for weekend talks on the crisis in Turkey.
The aim of the next Friends of Syria talks in Istanbul on Saturday is "to get everybody on the same page with respect to what post-Assad" Syria will look like, Kerry told US senators, highlighting the need to ensure that "Qataris, Saudis, Emirates, Turks, Europeans" all have the same goals in mind.
The arms flowing into Syria for the opposition battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will also come under scrutiny amid fears that extremist groups are getting hold of powerful weapons. "Everybody has now accepted a concern about extremist elements who have forced their way into this picture, and there is a desire by all parties to move those extremist elements to the side and to give support, I believe, to the Syrian opposition," Kerry said. "That's a big step forward."
Washington wants to see a pluralistic and democratic post-Assad Syria, in which all sides are "open to the negotiating process to a political settlement," Kerry told the Senate foreign relations committee.
"The hope is that that will then create a confidence level about who's getting what kind of aid from whom."
But the top US diplomat warned "that time is not on the side of a political solution. It's on the side of more violence, more extremism, an enclave breakup of Syria."
The United States plans to deploy 200 troops in Jordan because of "the deteriorating situation" in war-torn Syria, Jordanian Information Minister Mohammad Momani said on Wednesday.
"The deployment of the troops is part of US-Jordanian military cooperation to boost the Jordanian armed forces in light of the deteriorating situation in Syria," Momani told AFP. He did not say when the troops were scheduled to arrive in Jordan.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday urged caution over international calls to arm Syrian rebels and reserved the right for Israel to block the supply of weapons that could be turned against it.
In an interview with the BBC broadcast on Thursday, the Israeli prime minister said if advanced arms fell into the hands of Islamist militants it could redefine regional security threats.
"We're concerned that weapons which are groundbreaking, which could change the balance of power in the Middle East, could fall into the hands of these terrorists and we always reserve the right to act to prevent that from happening," he said.
Syrian troops on Wednesday captured a strategic village in central Homs province, putting pressure on rebel forces in the area, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog said.
The village is also just four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the main route that runs between Homs, Damascus and the northern province of Aleppo.
Meanwhile, rebels in the area captured the abandoned Dabaa military airport, seizing munitions left behind by the retreating regime forces, the group said.
Violence continued elsewhere in Syria on Thursday, killing at least 22 people, according to the Observatory, which relies on a network of activists and doctors inside the country.