Region

PARIS — Despite a highly symbolic British vote to recognise Palestine as a state, the road to official recognition is still fraught with obstacles, experts say, with the hoped-for two-state solution a long way off.

Diplomats and analysts see Monday's overwhelming British vote to recognise Palestine as a state, following Sweden's decision to do so, as a "small shift", but warn against reading too much into it.

"It's moving a little bit. Certain European countries are trying to make themselves heard and push things forward," said Agnes Levallois, an expert on the Arab world, adding that the push for Middle East peace must now come from Europe after the failure of US-led efforts.

According to an AFP count, at least 112 countries around the world have recognised a Palestinian state. A Palestinian count puts the number at 134.

EU member countries that have recognised a Palestinian state include Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Romania.

But experts say the EU is unlikely to push further towards recognition, particularly given the sensitivity of European heavyweight Germany's relations with Israel due to Berlin's Nazi past.

France has said it will recognise Palestine "when the time is right" but diplomats say Paris will not act outside the European framework.

The Palestinian ambassador in Paris, Hael Al Fahoum, said: "I hope that France, which is normally a driving force on this topic, will soon make a very important gesture."

But diplomats in Paris say that France is not yet ready to follow Sweden and take the plunge. "You can only play the card of recognition once, which is why it is important to choose one's moment," said one diplomat, who requested anonymity.

"There's no other answer" to the conflict than the two-state solution, said another source.

But frustration is growing within the international community in the face of a seemingly intractable conflict with the Europeans increasingly vocal about the cost of rebuilding after military flare-ups.

French President Francois Hollande said in August that the EU should not be seen as a "cash point" for reconstruction and EU foreign policy supremo Catherine Ashton said it must be the "last time" the international community has to pay to rebuild Gaza, after a global pledge made on Sunday of $5.4 billion.

Pessimists say that a political solution seems light years away, pointing to "out of control" Israeli settlement building, "weak and divided" Palestinians and difficulty restoring trust after this year's Gaza conflict that killed more than 2,000 Palestinians and dozens of Israelis.

The emergence of the Islamic State and the crisis in Syria and Iraq threatens to take the international community's eye off the ball in the Middle East peace process as well, warn analysts.

And Israel cautioned that "premature international recognition... actually undermines the chances to reach a real peace."

SANAA — Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi named a top diplomat his new premier Monday in his second bid this month to solve a political crisis with Shiite rebels that sparked deadly unrest.

Hadi's nomination of UN envoy Khalid Bahah appeared to have the consent of Houthi rebels, who seized control of much of the capital Sanaa in a lightning offensive last month.

The naming of a neutral prime minister is seen as a key step in convincing the rebels to withdraw from Sanaa, where their supporters were targeted in a devastating suicide bombing last Thursday that left 47 people dead.

State news agency Saba said a team of advisers to Hadi, which includes rebel representatives, had approved the nomination.

"After consultations over several nominees, all advisers nominated Khalid Mahfoudh Bahah," it said.

A member of the rebels' political arm, known as Ansarullah, confirmed the nomination had their consent.

"We approved the naming of candidate Khalid Bahah as prime minister," Ali Al Imad told AFP.

Yemen has been wracked by political turmoil and sporadic violence since the 2012 toppling of strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh, with rebels and militants battling to exploit a power vacuum and seize control of territory.

Since sweeping into the capital from their northern base on September 21, the Houthi rebels have established a strong presence, carrying out patrols and manning checkpoints.

Under a UN-sponsored ceasefire deal, they are to withdraw from Sanaa and disarm once a neutral prime minister is named.

A previous attempt to name a new premier collapsed last week under opposition from the rebels, with the candidate, Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak, withdrawing within 24 hours of being nominated.

Rebels 'promise' pullout 

A source close to the presidency said that with Bahah's nomination the rebels have promised to end their military presence in the capital and dismantle camps they have built around it.

AFP could not immediately confirm this with a rebel source.

Their presence in the capital has exacerbated tensions in Yemen, where authorities also have to deal with southern secessionist aspirations and a bloody campaign by the country’s Al Qaeda franchise.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is fiercely opposed to the Huthis, claiming responsibility for last week’s bombing in Sanaa and another suicide attack the same day that killed 20 soldiers in Hadramawt province.

Once Yemen’s ambassador to Canada and later the impoverished country’s minister of oil and minerals, Bahah became its envoy to the United Nations in August.

The rebel presence in the city has exasperated residents and twice since the takeover they have gone onto the streets to demand that the Houthis leave Sanaa.

Yemen has been without a prime minister since Mohamed Basindawa, who led a consensus government which the Shiite rebels accused of corruption, resigned when the Houthis seized government headquarters.

The Houthis, who complain of marginalisation by Sanaa, are concentrated in the mostly Shiite northern highlands in otherwise Sunni-majority Yemen.

Since storming into Sanaa, the rebels have been tightening their grip on the city while also looking to expand their control eastwards to oil fields and to the strategic southwestern strait of Bab Al Mandab.

Opponents accuse them of being backed by Iran in a similar fashion to its support for Lebanese Shiite movement Hizbollah.

Chronic instability in Yemen has raised concerns that the country -— next to oil-rich Saudi Arabia and key shipping routes in the Gulf of Aden — could become a failed state similar to Somalia.

BAGHDAD — A string of jihadist attacks has shrunk the Iraqi government's footprint in Anbar to a bare minimum and officials are warning time is running out to save the western province from falling completely.

The region's police chief was killed on Sunday by a roadside bomb blast as he led forces battling Islamic State (IS) fighters on the outskirts of provincial capital Ramadi.

His death was the latest setback suffered by the government in Anbar, a vast Sunni region, parts of which IS had control over even before it launched its sweeping June offensive in Iraq.

Kurdish and federal troops backed by US-led air strikes have pinned back their enemy and notched up gains in northern Iraq in recent weeks, but in Anbar the jihadists have retained the initiative.

A senior US defence official told AFP that the Iraqi's army position in Anbar was "tenuous".

"They are being resupplied and they're holding their own, but it's tough and challenging," the official said. "I think it's fragile there now."

The latest retreat came as recently as Sunday, when around 300 government forces abandoned a camp outside the city of Heet to join other forces holed up at Asad air base, deeper in the desert.

IS had already taken control of the city centre following deadly attacks which the UN said caused the displacement of an estimated 180,000 people.

“Heet is now 100 percent under IS-control,” a senior Anbar police official said Monday.

Anbar is Iraq’s largest province, a vast arid expanse traversed by the Euphrates and which borders Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the governorate of Baghdad.

IS-led insurgents control Fallujah, 50 kilometres west of Baghdad, Qaem, nearly 300 kilometres farther west on the border with Syria, and most of in between.

Thanks in part to intensive US air strikes, government forces backed by Sunni tribal fighters opposed to IS have retained control of Haditha Dam, the country’s second largest, and a handful of other areas.

US ground troops 

But the noose is tightening around Ramadi, parts of which are already under IS control.

“We can say that 85 per cent of Anbar is under IS control,” Faleh Al Issawi, the deputy head of Anbar provincial council, told AFP.

He argued that a ground intervention by US troops was the only measure that could rescue Ramadi and the rest of the province.

“If the situation continues to evolve in the same direction and foreign ground forces don’t intervene within the next 10 days, the next battle will be on Baghdad’s doorstep,” Issawi said.

Ahmed Abu Risha, one of the most prominent anti-jihadist tribal chiefs in Anbar, has also advocated a US ground intervention.

Yet both Iraq’s new prime minister, Haider Al Abadi, and Washington have ruled this out.

“It is Iraqis in Anbar who will have to fight for Anbar,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday.

Some experts argue that US-led air strikes would be more effective if they came in support of an attacking army dictating the tempo on the ground and forcing IS to react.

Abadi has retired some top brass in recent weeks and laid out a broad outline of measures to reform the security apparatus and rid it of corruption and patronage.

Some of the hundreds of US officers who have been deployed to Iraq in an advisory capacity have been helping Baghdad plan its next move in Anbar.

But it remains unclear whether Iraq’s army, sometimes described as a “checkpoint army” with only a few thousand elite forces really capable of fighting IS, can buck the trend in Anbar.

One captain told AFP last week his entire battalion had withdrawn from a base in Albu Eitha, just east of Ramadi, after spending days holed up in the compound with little food and water.

“We are in Tharthar now, the withdrawal went smoothly but I don’t know what we can do from here... Morale is low among the soldiers,” he said.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned Monday against "provocations" as clashes erupted at Jerusalem's holy sites, condemning Israeli settlement activity and calling for peace talks with the Palestinians.

Ban was speaking in Ramallah and Jerusalem where he met with Palestinian and Israeli leaders, a day after a donor conference for Gaza and hours after clashes at Al Aqsa Mosque compound between Israeli police and Palestinians.

"I am also deeply concerned by repeated provocations at the holy sites in Jerusalem. These only inflame tensions and must stop," Ban said at a joint news conference with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Ramallah on the West Bank.

Palestinian protesters demonstrated against Orthodox Jews going to the esplanade, which is holy to both Islam and Judaism, with Israeli forces eventually arresting four and enabling Jews to visit the site.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Palestinian extremists were to blame for the clashes, the second such violent outburst in less than a week.

"Israel is committed to maintaining the status quo exactly as it's been for many decades. What we're seeing is Palestinian extremists who are instigating violence through incitement," he said in Ban's presence at his Jerusalem office.

The UN chief's visit came a day after a Cairo conference at which international donors pledged $5.4 billion (4.3 billion euros) to rebuild the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

The amount raised by the international community for Gaza was "encouraging", Ban said in Ramallah, noting the funds would go towards the "urgently needed" reconstruction of infrastructure and homes.

Nearly 2,200 Palestinians, mainly civilians, were killed in the 50-day war in July and August, with 73 people killed on the Israeli side, mostly soldiers.

‘Roots of instability’

But “while rebuilding is important, we must tackle the root causes of instability”, Ban reiterated.

At the donor conference, Ban said “the root causes of the recent hostilities” were “a restrictive occupation that has lasted almost half a century, the continued denial of Palestinian rights and the lack of tangible progress in peace negotiations”.

Netanyahu, however, maintained the occupation was not relevant to the Gaza conflict.

“The root cause of the violence that burst from Gaza is not Israel’s occupation in Gaza, for a simple reason: Israel doesn’t occupy Gaza,” he told the UN chief.

“The root cause of this summer’s outburst of violence was Hamas’ rocketing of Israeli cities,” he said, referring to the Islamist movement which rules Gaza.

Netanyahu also urged Ban to prevent the Palestinians from taking unilateral diplomatic measures at the United Nations.

“A real peace can only be achieved through bilateral negotiations,” Netanyahu told Ban ahead of a meeting with him.

“I believe that unilateral steps by Palestinians at the United Nations will not advance peace,” he said. “If the UN wants to support a genuine reconciliation, it must avoid any steps that could undermine peace.”

Ban took Netanyahu to task for Israel’s own unilateral settlement construction announcements, saying they were “in clear violation of international law” and do “not send the right signals”.

“I urge the government of Israel to reverse these activities,” he said.

The White House and European Union have slammed Israel’s approval in September for 2,600 new settlement units to be built in Israeli-annexed Arab East Jerusalem.

The UN chief called on the sides to “quickly return to the negotiation table with the readiness to make the tough but necessary compromises”.

“Unilateral action is no foundation for the future,” Ban said.

“The two-state solution is the only way to bring peace to both sides,” he said, urging the sides to swiftly revive a stagnant peace process that collapsed in April despite intense US efforts.

Gaza’s war displaced more than a quarter of its population of 1.7 million and left 100,000 people homeless.

The $5.4 billion in aid pledged in Cairo on Sunday includes $1 billion from Qatar, $212 million from the US and 450 million euros from the EU, and will be overseen jointly by the UN and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.

Rivals Hamas and Fateh, which dominates the PA, signed a unity deal in April under which a consensus government was sworn in.

BEIRUT — Lebanon is set to postpone next month's parliamentary elections to 2017 because instability linked to the Syrian crisis has made it impossible to hold a nationwide poll, a government minister said on Monday.

The civil war in neighbouring Syria has stoked sectarian tensions and aggravated long-standing rivalries in Lebanon. This would be the second postponement of the elections, which should have taken place in June 2013.

Now the 128-member parliament is set to delay them for another two years and seven months from November, the minister said.

"There is no longer a possibility of holding the elections because of the deteriorating security situation in the country," the minister told Reuters. He declined to be named because the parliament has not yet voted on the new postponement.

Lebanon's interior minister and MPs have frequently said a new delay is inevitable. A postponement to 2017 would mean that the current parliament would serve two four-year terms in a row.

The government minister blamed violence in Lebanon's north, south and in the east along the border with Syria, where the turmoil has often spilled over into Lebanese territory.

In August, Sunni Muslim insurgents from Syria stormed the Lebanese border town of Arsal, killing at least 14 Lebanese soldiers, wounding dozens and capturing others. Earlier this month hundreds of insurgents attacked at least 10 bases belonging to Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah in a mountain range close to the border.

The minister said Lebanon's parliament will approve the delay later this month and will specify that the poll can only take place after the selection of a new president, the formation of a government and the adoption of a new elections law.

Lebanon has been without a president since May, when Michel Suleiman's term ended, because feuding lawmakers have been unable to decide on a successor and have blamed each other for the deadlock.

Lawmakers, who support different sides in Syria's civil war, are divided on many issues including on ways to deal with the effects of the crisis, which has driven around 1 million refugees into Lebanon.

Politicians from the March 8 coalition, which includes Hezbollah, support Syrian President Bashar Assad. The rival March 14 coalition backs Assad's opponents.

BAGHDAD — Militants with the Islamic State (IS) on Monday captured a military training camp in western Iraq, inching closer to full control of the restive Anbar province, as a spate of deadly bombings shook Baghdad, hitting mostly Shiite neighbourhoods and leaving at least 30 dead.

The attacks, which came as Iraqi Shiites marked a major holiday for their sect with families crowding the streets in celebration, raised new concerns that the Sunni militant group is making gains despite US-led coalition air strikes.

Meanwhile, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on a visit to Iraq warned that the air strikes will not be enough to defeat the militant group and stressed that the Iraqi security forces would have to do the "heavy work on the ground".

But Iraqi troops, overstretched and overwhelmed by the IS’ summer blitz that seized large swaths of territory in western and northern Iraq, continued to come under intense pressure on Monday in the western Anbar province, where militants seized an Iraqi military training camp.

The camp, near the town of Hit that fell to the insurgents earlier this month, was overrun in the morning hours after clashes with Iraqi soldiers, who were abandon the camp and withdraw from the area, two Anbar officials told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media. Town residents confirmed the camp's fall, speaking to the AP also on condition of anonymity, fearing for their own safety.

The IS touted its conquest of the camp in a statement Monday. The statement couldn't immediately be verified but it was posted on websites commonly used by the group.

In Baghdad, which has largely been spared of the violence seen in other parts of the country amid the IS' onslaught, bombings killed at least 30 people and wounded scores more on Monday, hitting three Shiite-majority neighbourhoods. The attacks came as many Iraqi Shiites families took to the streets to celebrate the Eid Al Ghadeer holiday, which commemorates the Shiite Imam Ali, the Prophet Mohammad's cousin and son-in-law and the sect's most sacred martyr.

In the eastern Habibiya district, police said 15 people died and 34 were wounded when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a police checkpoint. Earlier, a car bomb struck near a bus stop in northern Baghdad, killing 11 and wounding 22. And in the sprawling district of Sadr City, a bomb hidden in a vegetable cart went off, killing four and wounding 18.

Hospital officials confirmed the casualties. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to brief the media.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks but the IS says it has a foothold inside Baghdad and has claimed several large-scale bombings in the city in the past months, particularly in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City.

In Anbar, the capture of the Iraqi military camp despite the US airstrikes' campaign. The US military, which withdrew its forces from Iraq in late 2011 after more than eight years of war, first launched the air strikes in early August to help Iraqi and Kurdish ground forces fight back and retake ground lost to the IS. The strikes in Iraq were followed in September by the first US-led air strikes in Syria, where the IS has captured much of the country's east, declaring a self-styled caliphate on the territory under its control straddling the Iraqi-Syria border.

Since then, more than a dozen countries have entered the fight, providing air power, weapons or humanitarian assistance to more than a million Iraqi's people displaced by the militant offensive.

The British government joined the US-led aerial campaign on September 30. However, it has refused to join the air campaign in Syria, where the US has been joined by a coalition of Arab partners. The use of foreign ground troops in the battle against the Islamic State group has been frowned upon, both by the Iraqi government and by those foreign governments providing assistance.

"'The coalition can only deliver effective support to the Iraqi government and Iraqi security forces," said Britain's top diplomat during his visit to Baghdad on Monday. "The Iraqi people, the Iraqi security forces and Iraqi government will have to take the lead on the ground."

"We always understood that our campaign alone was not effective to be decisive in turning the tide against ISIL," Hammond added, using an alternate acronym for the militant group. "But it has halted the ISIL advance, it has forced ISIL to change its tactics and it is degrading their military capabilities and their economic strength, their ability to exploit oil revenues, for example."

The US military said Sunday it conducted an airstrike southwest of Hit in Anbar, destroying a militant armoured vehicle. It said another air strike southeast of Hit targeted an armored personnel carrier. Air strikes were also conducted near the Iraqi cities of Ramadi and Kirkuk, US Central Command said.

BERLIN — Tunisia lost about a third of its French tourist bookings to cancellation shortly after the beheading last month of a French traveller by Islamist militants in neighbouring Algeria, the country's tourism minister said on Monday.

Increased political unrest and militant violence in North Africa since the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011 have hit tourism in a region known mainly for its fine Mediterranean beaches and long popular with French travellers.

"Within three days we saw 30 per cent of bookings cancelled," Tourism Minister Amel Karboul told journalists on the sidelines of a tourism conference in Berlin. "It's a shame because October is normally a strong month for tourists from France."

Tourism accounts for 7 per cent of Tunisia's gross domestic product.

Tunisia is due to hold a parliamentary election on October 26 and a presidential ballot in November. Its relatively peaceful transition towards full democracy after autocrat Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali's fall to mass protests three years ago has earned Tunisia plaudits as a model for change in the region.

"[But] even if we as a country manage to be 100 per cent safe, we are not immune to the effects created by the region we're in," Karboul said.

In the first nine months of 2014, tourist arrivals to Tunisia from France, its main source of holidaymakers, were down 6 per cent, ministry figures show. Arrivals from Europe as a whole declined 2.1 per cent, although overall international arrivals were up 0.2 percent.

To try and reassure tourists and keep Tunisia safe, the government has doubled the number of security forces at the borders, increased checks on those arriving from militant-prone Libya and Algeria and installed more cameras in tourist destinations, according to Karboul.

The Tunis government is also trying to ease visa procedures to encourage tourism from regions such as eastern Europe where travellers are less likely to be deterred by unrest, she added.

Algeria has also stepped up security measures. The state news agency APS said at the weekend that government troops had killed eight suspected militants in the eastern Bouira region while tracking an Al Qaeda splinter group that abducted and decapitated French tourist Herve Gourdel.

ANKARA — Turkey's foreign minister insisted Monday there was no new agreement with the United States on using Turkish bases for operations against the IS (IS) militants.

In comments carried by the state-run Anadolu Agency, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said, however, that the two countries had agreed to train and equip opposition forces.

"There is no decision at the moment concerning Incirlik or any other issue," Anadolu quoted Cavusoglu as saying in reference to a key airbase in southern Turkey.

Earlier, a government official said Turkey and the United States were still talking about the Incirlik airbase as well as Turkish demands for the creation of a no-fly zone and a safe haven for refugees. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the issue publicly.

On Sunday, US defence officials said Turkey would let US and coalition forces use its bases for operations against IS militants.

IS extremists have carved out a vast stretch of territory from northern Syria to the outskirts of Baghdad and imposed a harsh version of Islamic rule. The fighters have massacred hundreds of captured Iraqi and Syrian soldiers, terrorised religious minorities, and beheaded two American journalists and two British aid workers. Hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled into Turkey from Syria ahead of the militants.

A US-led coalition has been carrying out air strikes against the militant targets in and around the Syrian border town of Kobani for more than two weeks. The town's fate has emerged as a major test of whether the air campaign can roll back the extremists in Syria.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, in comments published Sunday in the Milliyet newspaper, said the Incirlik airbase was already being used for reconnaissance purposes in Iraq, but suggested its use for wider operations would depend on whether Turkey's demands for a no-fly zone and a safe zone in Syria are met.

"There are activities that we are already undertaking jointly from Incirlik, concerning Iraq: the Predators, the reconnaissance flights can continue," Davutoglu told Milliyet, referring to unnamed aerial vehicles.

"But as a base for a more extensive operation — if they are expecting the contribution of any country — we have already made our position clear: there has to be a no-fly zone and a safe haven must be declared," he said.

On the ground Monday, a suicide bomber from the IS group detonated his explosive-laden vehicle in Kobani amid fierce fighting with Kurdish militiamen there.

The sound of explosions and occasional gunfire could be heard across the border from Kobani a day after Kurdish fighters managed to slow the advance of the jihadist group. What appeared to be a rocket-propelled grenade struck a minaret in the centre of the town, emitting a cloud of white smoke.

Activists said IS militants were carrying out a three-pronged attack from the eastern side of the town and that clashes were reported in the southern part.

The Syrian Kurdish enclave has been the scene of heavy fighting since late last month, with the better-armed IS fighters determined to capture the border post.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an IS suicide bomber detonated a car filled with explosives Monday in the northern part of Kobani near the border with Turkey. It said the car was headed to the border crossing between Kobani and Turkey.

Later Monday, another suicide attacker blew himself up in a vehicle east of Kobani near the security quarter that houses the main police station and other local government offices, according to the observatory and Kobani-based activist Farhad Shami.

Shami said the first vehicle appeared to have exploded prematurely. There was no immediate word on casualties from either explosion.

Shami said coalition aircraft flying over Kobani had struck 10 times Sunday and Monday.

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Iran must withdraw its “occupying” forces from Syria to help resolve that country’s conflict, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal said Monday after talks with his German counterpart.

“Our reservations are about Iran’s policy in the region, not about Iran as a country or people,” Prince Saud said at a joint news conference in the Red Sea city of Jeddah with Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

“In many conflicts, Iran is part of the problem, not the solution,” Prince Saud said, charging that Shiite-dominated Iran had forces in Syria “fighting Syrians”.

“In this case, we can say that Iranian forces in Syria are occupying forces,” aiding President Bashar Assad, whom he described as an “illegitimate” leader.

Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-ruled Gulf states support rebel groups which have been battling Assad since March 2011 in a war which has killed more than 180,000 people.

Assad receives financial and military aid from Iran, which denies having fighters on the ground.

He is also backed by combatants from Lebanon’s pro-Iranian Shiite movement Hizbollah.

“If Iran wants to be part of the solution in Syria, it has to pull its forces from Syria. The same applies elsewhere, whether in Yemen or Iraq,” the Saudi minister said.

“If it wants to be part of the solution, welcome. But if it continues to be part of the problem, it cannot play any role in the region.”

Iran is accused of backing Shiite rebels in Yemen who overran the capital Sanaa on September 21.

Critical time 

Bonded by Shiite Islam, Iran and Iraq have grown closer in the realms of government and security since the toppling of Sunni leader Saddam Hussein in the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

Among the many groups fighting Assad is the IS jihadist group, which Saudi Arabia and four other Arab nations are now battling under a US-led coalition.

The Arab states have taken part in or given support to coalition air strikes against IS militants in Syria.

The Sunni extremist IS has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq, declaring a “caliphate” where they have been accused of carrying out widespread atrocities, including mass executions, crucifixions and beheadings, and forcing women into slavery.

Such extremism “has nothing to do with Islam”, Saudi King Abdullah said last week.

Steinmeier said the IS was “a threat to the entire world”, noting that thousands of foreign fighters, including young Germans, had joined up.

“We agree on the fact that we must work together against IS,” the German minister said, adding a military approach must be part of a political strategy.

Steinmeier said Tehran should realise that IS and similar “terrorist groups ultimately represent a threat to Iran, not only to Sunni states,” hoping for “cooperative behaviour” from the Islamic republic.

Analyst Abdulaziz Sager, chairman of the non-profit Gulf Research Centre, wrote in Monday’s Arab News daily that it was time for Germany to adopt a more prominent political role in the region in keeping with its economic clout.

“What the Middle East needs now is a more proactive Germany working both on the front and behind the scenes,” he said.

BAGHDAD — A roadside bomb killed the police chief of Iraq's battleground province of Anbar Sunday, officials said, after the Pentagon expressed concern about a renewed offensive by jihadists in the area.

The attack came near the provincial capital of Ramadi, one of the few areas between Baghdad and the Syrian border not controlled by fighters loyal to the Islamic State group, provincial and police officials said.

A cameraman working for the police's media department was also killed in the attack while fighting raged in several districts around Ramadi.

"Major General Ahmed Saddag was killed by an IED [improvised explosive device] blast targeting his convoy this morning," Faleh Al Issawi, the deputy head of the provincial council, told AFP.

"The blast hit the convoy as it was passing through the Abu Risha district," just northwest of Ramadi, he said.

A senior police official in the province confirmed Saddag's death and said four other policemen were also wounded in the attack.

"The police chief was leading forces involved in an operation to retake Twei" from IS, Colonel Abdulrahman Al Janabi said.

He said clashes between government forces and the jihadists had erupted in the area on Saturday evening.

A cameraman named Imad Amer Lattufi who was accompanying Saddag in the operation was also killed by the blast, police said.

A Ramadi-based journalist described him as a brave reporter who had spent most of the year on the frontlines with federal forces battling jihadists across Anbar.

The Shiite-led government’s footprint is shrinking in the vast Sunni Arab-dominated province, which has borders with Jordan and Saudi Arabia as well as Syria, and has become a jihadist stronghold.

According to police and army officials, IS militants attacked on three fronts Sunday but gained no ground.

“Their attacks are continuous, this has been happening every day, we are at war,” said Janabi.

“We have lost one of our heroes today but this has just reinforced our troops’ determination to stand firm, they want to avenge his death now,” he said.

Some parts of Anbar, such as the city of Fallujah, have been under insurgent control since before the major jihadist offensive launched in June across five Iraqi provinces.

In recent weeks, ill-prepared federal army forces suffered major losses in Anbar and only retain control over parts of Ramadi, the country’s second largest dam in Haditha and a few other towns and bases.

On Friday, US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel described the campaign against IS in Iraq as “difficult,” particularly in the western province of Anbar, saying the province “is in trouble”.