Region

DUBAI — Think of the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf and what springs to mind? Billowing white robes against desert dunes, camel racing and falconry or futuristic buildings needling skywards?

Probably all of the above, and therein lies the crux for UAE citizens, who comprise just one in 10 of their own country's population.

Emiratis are trying to preserve their tribal customs, including the Bedouin lifestyle, against a tsunami of alien influences from a foreign labour force that has transformed their lives.

As a small minority in a sea of foreigners — 11 per cent of a population of 8.5 million — they wear traditional clothing and observe local customs as a statement of their identity.

Men don the white ankle-length kandura, and women loose black abaya cloaks, setting themselves apart from non-nationals lured by the beacon of economic prosperity.

"We'd be wiped out if we were unprepared for cultural confrontation with certain people," said Abdulaziz Al Musallam, director of heritage at the Department of Culture and Heritage in Sharjah, one of the seven emirates.

"This massive presence of non-Emiratis pushes us to stick to our identity."

Despite joining the US-led coalition battling jihadists in Syria and Iraq — and with a woman F-16 fighter pilot reportedly leading the country's contingent — the UAE remains a conservative Muslim nation.

But much of the federation is relatively open socially, with foreign women in western dress mingling with Emirati women in head-to-toe abayas in the malls of the glitzy city state Dubai.

Torn between the temptation to open up and the risk to their identity, Emiratis are actively seeking to conserve a culture they hope to pass on to coming generations.

Social anchor 

For an Emirati, tribal affiliation is a social anchor, along with customs like camel racing in which the best animals can cost millions of dollars.

"Our society is tribal in nature," said the writer and intellectual Said Hamdan. "There are desert tribes, coastal tribes and mountain tribes.”

"Tribes themselves matter, as does belonging to a tribe and the heritage of each tribe."

The UAE was formed in 1971 as a federation of six emirates — Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain. The seventh, Ras Al Khaimah, joined a year later.

Its oil wealth and flourishing economy has long attracted foreign workers.

Musallam believes a solid cultural front — rooted in tribal customs — is essential in countering the influences of large foreign communities, an apparent reference to Asians and Westerners.

"Dress, lifestyle at home and popular arts linked to camels and falconry are essential pillars of the national identity that we want to safeguard," he said.

Emiratis lead quite separate lives from the expatriate population, who have their own schools and enjoy freedom of worship — but cannot obtain citizenship even after decades in residence.

And as for marriage, Emirati men are expected to marry one of their own — although some have taken foreigners as second wives, stirring lively local debate.

Obvious signs of wealth 

Despite rapid modernisation, as transformed city landscapes bristling with skyscrapers attest, elderly Emiratis prefer the old way of life, receiving and entertaining guests in their majlis or meeting room.

In the majlis of their own homes, men are served cardamom-flavoured Arabic coffee and dates as they discuss the issues of the day, while the country's rulers also open their majlis to citizens seeking favours or wanting to register complaints.

When Emiratis do venture out, they are instantly distinguishable by their wafting perfumes, traditional clothing and obvious signs of wealth.

Protocol expert Ghassan Hajjaj said UAE nationals are known for their love of heady fragrances based on oud, amber, musk and rose, products that were historically part of the region's caravan trade.

Major manufacturers produce special perfumes for the Gulf Arab states, and traditional kanduras and headgear can carry top western designer labels.

In addition to promoting identity through outward appearance, the government wants to ensure young Emiratis qualify to join the labour force, to reduce the dependence on foreigners.

The Emiratis' challenge, Musallem said, is to preserve their identity in a society transforming under the twin effect of immigration and new technologies — illustrated by plans to send an unmanned probe to Mars by 2021.

"Should we change to adapt to modernity when building a state, or preserve our culture?" he asked. "For the past 40 years, we have remained the same."

SURUC, Turkey — They died after fighting to defend Kobani. But such is the control Islamic State has around the Syrian Kurdish border town, their families have no idea when they might be able to get back to give them a proper burial there.

Instead, the Kurdish fighters have been laid to rest in hastily dug graves in Turkey, some 10km over the border from the town they fought to save from the jihadists closing in.

Nine Kurdish fighters from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) were buried on Thursday close to Suruc, where they had been rushed, wounded, from battles that have raged for three weeks.

Four more graves lay waiting. Monitors estimate that several hundred have died on each side as heavily armed Islamic State fighters have inexorably pushed home their advantage against out-gunned but determined Kurdish defenders.

"These are very difficult times," said Bekir Sehahmed, 71, standing by the mounded earth. "I am a Muslim too. Why are they doing this?"

Around 300 mourners, mostly men, gathered near the graves, marked by stones and scattered with a few flowers. One Syrian Kurdish man delivered a eulogy through a megaphone, hailing the dead as martyrs and calling on others to sacrifice themselves.

Islamic State artillery has pounded Kobani for days, and both sides have resorted to suicide attacks in the town that is on an east-west highway running parallel to the Turkish border.

Islamic State wants to take Kobani to consolidate a dramatic sweep across northern Iraq and Syria, in the name of an absolutist version of Sunni Islam, that has sent shockwaves through the Middle East.

US-led coalition air strikes appear to have slowed, but not stopped, the militants' advance. Islamic State controls parts of eastern Kobani and the group's black flag flies on a hill overlooking the dusty streets of the town.

An estimated 200,000 people have fled the Kobani bloodletting into Turkey, and Kurdish officials say some civilians remain trapped. Going in the opposition direction for any reason other than joining the fight has become impossible.

Ahmet, 35, dressed all in black, used to slip through the barbed wire of the border from Turkey into Kobani to see his relative Seydo Mehmet Cumo, a 40-year-old father of four.

Now he is burying him in a makeshift grave in Turkey.

"It tears us apart to see this. He died yesterday, the hospital told us," said Ahmet, who did not give his family name.

Kurdish military commanders say they will fight until the last, raising fears of a massacre if Kobani finally falls and there being many more graves to fill.

"I went to Kobani last month and spent a night there. I helped them dig trenches around the town. All they need is weapons," Ahmet said.

His comments show not only his grief, but hint at the frustration at what some see as an increasingly political dimension of a siege in a town that has highlighted the fractured alliances and rivalries of a complex landscape.

A short distance away from the graves of the Kurdish fighters, three youths, their faces masked, held aloft flags of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Ankara has fought a 30-year counterinsurgency battle against the PKK, who are demanding increased autonomy and have close links with the armed groups fighting Islamic State.

Ankara has offered humanitarian assistance, but Turkish officials have made it clear they are neither willing to help groups they see as terrorists, nor be dragged into a ground war in Syria, where fighting since March 2011 has already sent more than 1.2 million people fleeing over their border.

This week, 21 people were killed when Turkey's pre-dominantly Kurdish southeast was swept by some of the most violent demonstrations in years. There are fears a fragile peace process aimed at disarming the PKK could be threatened.

"These are our children. We don't want them to die. They are being killed viciously," said Abdulkadir Dasdemir, 57, who travelled from Istanbul to Suruc show his solidarity with Kobani.

"Turkey and America could stop this [attack] in 24 hours if they wanted to... [But] the Turkish Republic is allowing this to happen."

SANAA — Suicide bombers targeting Yemen's powerful Shiite Houthi group and an army camp killed at least 67 people in two separate attacks on Thursday, hours after a political crisis forced the new prime minister to step down.

At least 47 people were killed, including four children, when a suicide bomber detonated a belt packed with explosives at a Houthi checkpoint in the centre of the capital Sanaa where Houthi supporters were preparing to hold a rally.

Body parts were scattered across Tahrir Square and pools of blood formed on the asphalt after the blast, which also wounded at least 75 people.

In eastern Yemen, where the militant group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has waged repeated attacks on army installations and government facilities in recent months, at least 20 soldiers were killed in a suicide car bombing and gun attack on an army outpost, state news agency SABA reported.

The attacks occurred just hours after a showdown between the Houthis and President Abed Rabbo Mansour forced Prime Minister-designate Ahmed Awad Bin Mubarak, whose appointment on Tuesday under a power-sharing deal signed last month had angered Houthi leaders, to turn down the post.

The Houthis have emerged as Yemen’s main power brokers since their paramilitary forces seized the capital on September 21, following weeks of anti-government demonstrations.

A policeman guarding a local bank near Tahrir Square in central Sanaa said a man apparently wearing a suicide belt approached the Houthi checkpoint. “He then exploded amidst the [Houthi] security and ordinary people nearby,” he told Reuters.

In Buroom, a coastal region of Hadramout province, a suicide bomber drove a car laden with explosives towards an army camp, while gunmen tried to storm the facility, a local official and witnesses said. The soldiers beat back the attackers, but SABA said 20 soldiers were killed and 13 were wounded.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either attack, but the incidents mirror previous bombings carried out by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which has targeted state institutions, including the armed forces, and which sees members of the minority Zaydi sect of Shiite Islam as heretics.

US ambassador to Yemen Matthew Tueller condemned the Sanaa attack and urged Yemenis to implement the power-sharing accord, which aims to resolve a decade-long Houthi insurgency and pull the country out of a crisis precipitated by the 2011 uprising that forced veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.

A southern secessionist movement and the AQAP onslaught on security forces has already stretched the resources of the impoverished country of 25 million and alarmed neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, and other conservative Gulf Arab states.

“The Yemeni people have lived with senseless violence for far too long and the recent increase in hostilities against innocent civilians only undermines the progress Yemen has made since the 2011 revolution,” the US embassy said in a statement posted on its website. “Yemen’s challenges are political and therefore must be resolved through political solutions.”

Western and Gulf Arab countries are worried that instability in Yemen could strengthen al Qaeda and have supported a UN-backed political transition since 2012 led by Hadi meant to shepherd the country to stability after decades of autocracy.

Protest

A new Yemeni government is due to be appointed under a power-sharing accord signed last month aimed at bringing the Houthis into government. Once a new administration is nominated the Houthis are meant to withdraw their forces from the city, allowing the army and police to resume their duties.

The Houthis on Wednesday rejected Hadi’s nomination of Bin Mubarak as prime minister, and Bin Mubarak announced early on Thursday he had agreed not to take up the position.

Houthi followers had been preparing to demonstrate in Tahrir Square on Thursday to voice opposition to the nomination of Bin Mubarak, previously the head of Hadi’s office, on the grounds that his selection had been imposed by Washington. The United States has denied the allegation.

The Houthis pushed ahead with the protest despite the attack, and thousands of supporters, some armed, converged on the square chanting slogans against the government and corruption.

“This terrorist attack would not deter us from holding this demonstration,” a local organiser told Reuters.

The Houthis said they had foiled another attack by two cars on the square earlier in the morning, destroying one vehicle, while attackers in a second car managed to escape.

On Wednesday evening, Houthi leader Abdulmalik Al Houthi called for mass protests against “foreign interference” he said was behind the appointment of Bin Mubarak.

“I assert that together with these marches tomorrow, God willing there will be important steps that will contribute to correcting this mistake, which is an unacceptable mistake,” Houthi said.

SABA said that Hadi accepted Bin Mubarak’s decision to turn down the appointment and resumed consultations to agree on a new prime minister.

RAMALLAH — A senior Palestinian official said on Thursday that European moves towards recognising an independent Palestine would bring them in line with global public opinion, ahead of a symbolic British parliament debate on the issue set for Monday.

The UK vote comes as Sweden's new centre-left government is set to officially recognise Palestine and a spokesman for the French foreign ministry said this week that recognition would be a positive step at some point but still advised peace talks.

Israel says such recognition would undermine now stalled negotiations between the two sides, but Palestinians believe it is the best way to achieve a state.

“Interational public opinion is way ahead of many governments. There is a strong solidarity movement, there is a strong network of people speaking out when governments are much more timid and reticent,” Hanan Ashrawi, an official in the Palestine Liberation Organisation told reporters at her office in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

One-hundred and thirty-eight countries approved the de facto recognition of the sovereign state of Palestine in a vote at the United Nations General Assembly in 2012 but most European Union countries, including Britain, have yet to give official recognition.

Palestinians want an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza, with its capital in East Jerusalem.

A motion due for debate in Britain’s lower house of parliament on October 13 will ask lawmakers whether they believe the government should recognise the state of Palestine.

It is unlikely to win approval because it is at odds with official policy, but even if it did pass, it is non-binding and would not force the government to changes its diplomatic stance.

Palestinians believe Britain bears a unique role in their plight, as it ran a colonial mandate over what is now Israel and occupied Palestinian lands from the end of the World War I, blessing a Jewish homeland among the native Arabs and allowing mass Jewish immigration there, mostly from European countries.

“[There is a] historical responsibility by the British towards Palestine dating back to 1917, and we believe this process of rectification has to start — it is about time,” Ashrawi said.

GAZA — Palestinian technocrat Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah arrived in the Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip on Thursday and convened the first meeting of a unity government there since a brief civil war in 2007 between Hamas and forces loyal to the Fateh Party.

Dozens of Fateh security personnel loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas and policemen from the Hamas-led interior ministry in the enclave were out in force to protect Hamdallah, who did a walk-past inspection of a police guard of honour.

"I come to you representing President Mahmoud Abbas and, as head of the government of national consensus, to assume our responsibilities, see your needs and launch a comprehensive workshop to salvage Gaza and bring relief to our people here," he said.

He also visited a neighbourhood destroyed in a 50-day war with Israel in July and August, and his presence in Gaza may encourage donor countries to pledge funds to rebuild Gaza, which he has estimated will cost $4 billion over the next three years.

"I have wept in Beit Hanoun when I saw how people are living and where they are sleeping ... I hope the donor conference will be a success and that money donated will be enough so we can immediately begin the rebuilding," Hamdallah said.

Palestinian parties agreed last month that the unity government would assume immediate authority over Gaza before an international aid conference set for October 12 in Egypt’s capital, Cairo. The two sides agreed to form a joint Cabinet in May.

Donors have for years been wary of giving aid as long as Hamas, blacklisted as a terrorist group by many Western countries, rules the blockaded coastal strip after it siezed the territory from Western-backed Fateh in the 2007 war.

Hamas sees itself as the lawful representative of the Palestinian people after winning parliamentary polls the year before its fighters grabbed control of Gaza, and says its armed resistance against Israel is legitimate.

US-backed peace talks between Israel and the Fateh-led Palestinian Authority in the occupied West Bank to achieve a state there and in Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital collapsed in April.

Sticking points

Hamdallah last week appeared to have resolved a core sticking point between the two sides when he announced that Qatar would pay a large part of the wages owed to Hamas-hired employees in Gaza with United Nations help.

The precise mechanism of payment remained unclear however.

Hamdallah’s visit to Gaza may restore some hope among ordinary Palestinians, demoralised by conflict, eight years of political paralysis and dwindling hopes of a Palestinian nation.

“We have put years of division behind us and we have begun to consolidate reconciliation as a core step to lobby the international community and its influential powers to bear their responsibility towards rebuilding Gaza, which requires lifting the unjust [Israeli] blockade,” Hamdallah said.

Hamdallah said it was a top priority to reunify government institutions following years of division in which residents of Gaza and the West Bank had to deal with two separate governing entities.

Palestinian officials said this week that Israel may begin next week to lift curbs on the entrance of goods into Gaza after years of an economic blockade.

“For the first time I feel unity is possible, I hope what am seeing right now is real and that it will last and not be a dream,” said 26-year-old taxi driver Hani Ahmed, as he watched live television footage of Hamdallah’s arrival in Gaza at an electronics store in Gaza City.

VIENNA — Talks between the UN nuclear watchdog and Iran this week appear not to have substantively advanced an investigation into suspected atomic bomb research by Tehran, potentially dimming chances for a broader deal between the Iranians and big powers.

Western officials say Iran must improve cooperation with United Nations nuclear sleuths if it wants to reach a settlement to a protracted dispute with six world powers over the country's nuclear programme and be rid of crippling financial sanctions.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a statement after the
October 7-8 meeting in Tehran that discussions would continue. But it did not announce a date for the next round of talks focused on the Vienna-based IAEA's concerns that Iran had initially been supposed to address by late August.

Diplomats in the Austrian capital said it seemed that very little, if any, progress had been achieved.

Tehran's envoy to the Vienna-based UN agency, Reza Najafi, said the discussions had been "very constructive", according to Iran's ISNA news agency, which did not elaborate.

Iran denies Western allegations that it is seeking to develop the capability to produce nuclear weapons, saying its atomic activities are aimed at generating electricity only.

Early last month, the IAEA said Iran had not answered questions by the August 25 target date about alleged research activities into explosives testing and neutron calculations, which could be applicable to any attempt to make nuclear bombs.

In this week's meetings, "the two sides held discussions in relation" to these two issues, the IAEA said, adding: "The agency and Iran will continue discussions on these measures."

The IAEA gave no further detail. But its statement suggested strongly that the Islamic Republic had still not fully implemented the steps it had agreed to carry out, answering questions about what the United Nations agency calls the "possible military dimensions" of Tehran's nuclear programme.

The IAEA has for years been trying to get to the bottom of Western intelligence reports suggesting that Iran has worked on designing a nuclear warhead.

Iran has denounced the intelligence as fabricated, but has promised to work with the IAEA since last year when Hassan Rouhani, seen as a pragmatist, became president on a platform to overcome his country’s international isolation.

Rouhani’s election raised hopes of a solution to the nuclear stand-off with the West after years of tension that raised fears of a new Middle East war. An interim accord was reached between Iran and six major powers — the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China and Russia — in Geneva last November.

But they fell short of a self-imposed July target date for a long-term accord and now face a new deadline of November 24.

While the powers seek to limit the size of Iran’s future nuclear programme, and thereby extend the time it would need for any attempt to accumulate fissile material for a weapon, the IAEA is investigating alleged research and experiments in the past that could be used to make the bomb itself.

MADRID — The health of a Spanish nurse with Ebola worsened on Thursday and four other people were put into isolation in Madrid, while the country's government rejected claims its methods for dealing with the disease weren't working and blamed human error.

Teresa Romero, 44, is the first person to have contracted Ebola outside of Africa, after becoming infected by one of two Spanish priests repatriated from Africa with the disease.

In total seven people are in isolation in Madrid, though only Romero has tested positive for Ebola. The others include the nurse's husband and two doctors who cared for her. Three other people were released from the isolation unit late on Wednesday after testing negative.

A health official at the Carlos III Hospital where Romero is being treated said on Thursday: "Her clinical situation has deteriorated but I can't give any more information due to the express wishes of the patient."

The European Commission asked the Spanish government for an explanation of how Romero's infection happened in a high-security ward. One political official pointed out that Romero told another doctor at the hospital that she touched her face with her protective gloves.

"It's obvious that the patient herself has recognised that she did not strictly follow the protocol," Ruben Moreno, spokesman for health for the ruling People's Party, said in a television interview.

Health workers — whose unions have called for the resignation of Spanish Health Minister Ana Mato — expressed growing anger that training and protective suits provided to hospital staff had been inadequate.

One nurse, who worked alongside Romero on the isolation ward while caring for the priests, said the government was trying to shift the blame for any lapse in protocol.

"We are really angry," Elena, who declined to give her second name, said outside the gates of the Carlos III Hospital. "She is the victim and they are criminalising her as if she was the one responsible for all that has happened."

Another doctor, who cared for Romero and is among those now in isolation, said the sleeves on the protective suit he wore while handling her had been too short.

In a letter to healthcare authorities, published by national newspaper El Pais, the doctor detailed treating Romero during a gruelling 16-hour shift during which he was not told she had the Ebola virus. He said he only learned of this via the press.

The hospital has now cleared its fourth floor to accommodate around 10 workers who are caring for the seven people in isolation on the sealed-off sixth floor.

Calls for calm

In a sign the disease may be present elsewhere in Europe, a senior Macedonian government official said on Thursday that a British man suspected of contracting Ebola had died in that country, and a second Briton had shown symptoms of the virus.

Earlier Britain announced it would start screening passengers entering the country through London's two main airports and the Eurostar rail link with Europe for possible cases of the Ebola virus.

The European Union is discussing the introduction of airport screening, something the US government ordered at five major airports after the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States died on Wednesday.

Currently, passengers at airports in Africa must fill out questionnaires and be checked for high body temperature, one of the symptoms of Ebola.

The virus has killed nearly 4,000 people in West Africa since March in the largest outbreak on record. It causes hemorrhagic fever and is spread through direct contact with body fluids from an infected person.

The World Health Organisation has said it sees no evidence of the disease being brought under control in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

News of the contraction of the Ebola virus in their country has deeply shaken Spaniards' faith in the government and the health system, which has suffered deep spending cuts as part of austerity measures over the past years.

Although there are no signs of panic in Madrid, one resident in the suburb where Romero lived said some people had cancelled hospital appointments and some parents had not taken their children to the nursery near the health centre where she had first gone complaining of fever.

"A lot of children did not turn up at the nursery next to the health centre and some cancelled hospital appointments as a matter of caution," said Josefa Sierra, 67, member of a neighbour's association in the Madrid suburb of Alcorcon.

"Of course people are talking of little else when you go to do the shopping at the supermarket," she said. "But there's no panic, no. It's not as though people are staying at home."

While newspapers run columns and diagrams on the life-cycle of the virus, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has called for calm and said a major outbreak was extremely unlikely.

The investigation into how Romero contracted the disease continues. A spokesman for the Madrid health department also said the ambulance that collected Romero from her home, while disinfected between trips, went on to carry other patients to hospital without being taken out of circulation until she was known to have contracted Ebola.

Patients carried in the ambulance were unlikely to have caught the disease as they did not have direct contact with the nurse, but were being monitored, the spokesman said. He could not say how many travelled in the ambulance, although press reports put it at seven patients.

PARIS — Turkey has long sought a safe haven along its border with Syria, an idea which gained traction Wednesday as Islamic State jihadists battled for control of a town on the Syrian side.

Paris openly supported the idea and London said it was worth examining.

However in a potential sign of US reticence over such an operation, contradictions emerged from Washington.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said it was "worth looking at very, very closely", but the White House quickly said the idea was in fact not under consideration.

Either way, experts say there are many steps to take before such a zone can be put in place.

What is a buffer zone?

A buffer zone is an area which "separates two warring parties and creates a space where arms are forbidden," said former General Dominique Trinquand, an expert on United Nations and peacekeeping operations.

Turkey wants to protect its border but also provide some security for Syrian Kurds fleeing the onslaught by Islamic State militants.

More than 1 million Syrians have sought refuge in Turkey since the Syrian war began in 2011, according to the UN refugee agency.

Trinquand said that such a buffer zone should stretch some 40 kilometres across the border.

It would incorporate the tomb of Suleyman Sha — grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire — which is situated in a sovereign exclave of Turkey in Syria and is very important to Ankara.

Previous examples

The two Koreas: North and South Korea have been separated by the Korean Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) since the end of the Korean war in 1953. It is 4 kilometres wide, 241km long and, with combat-ready soldiers patrolling on both sides, is the most heavily militarised border in the world.

Cyprus: A United Nations buffer zone called the Green Line has separated the Greek-controlled south and Turkish-controlled north of the island since 1974.

Golan heights: A 70km long buffer zone has separated the Israeli-occupied part of the Golan Heights and the rest of Syria since 1974.

Eritrea/Ethiopia: A buffer zone 25km wide and about 1,000km long separates the two countries. It was put in place by a peace deal signed in 2000 after a border war.

Practical implications

Experts say it is vital that a UN resolution be taken under Chapter 7, which allows for the use of force, before any such buffer zone be implemented.

Would Moscow be amenable to the idea? In 2011, when Turkey first suggested the safe haven, it was supported by France and the US who did not take the matter further as it was thought Russia would veto the idea.

Putting in place a buffer zone would mean preventing overflights as well as ground penetration.

A no-fly zone requires patrols by fighter jets. This would require agreement from Syria — and neither Washington nor Paris have relations with Bashar Assad's regime.

Then there is the question of how to prevent access to the zone without deploying ground troops, which all countries in the US-led coalition fighting IS have refused.

That would leave the job up to Turkey or UN peacekeepers.

Didier Billion, an expert with the French Institute for International and Strategic Relations, said Turkey — which already has tanks deployed at the border — could contribute, but this would not be sufficient for it to function properly.

WASHINGTON — The White House denied Wednesday it was planning to create a safe haven along Turkey's border with Syria, after France backed the proposal and the US and British top diplomats said the idea was worth examining.

"It's not something that is under consideration right now," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.

Earlier, Secretary of State John Kerry said "the buffer zone is an idea that's out there, it's worth examining, it's worth looking at very, very closely”.

Turkey has been calling for a buffer zone to protect its border, and also provide some security for Syrian Kurds fleeing the onslaught by Islamic State militants, and won backing from France.

French President Francois Hollande "gave his support to the idea... of creating a buffer zone between Syria and Turkey to host and protect displaced people," the French presidency said in a statement.

Following talks with Kerry, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said his country was "exploring" the issue as well.

"We'd have to explore with our other allies and partners what is meant by a buffer zone, how such a concept would work. But I certainly wouldn't want to rule it out at this stage," he added.

Such a move would mark a significant shift in American military engagement in the region, but State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki also downplayed any suggestion that the creation of a buffer was imminent, highlighting the many challenges it would post.

'An active debate' 

Washington was happy to discuss it with its allies amid "an active debate.... because Turkey and other countries have renewed their interest in having a discussion about this," Psaki said.

"While we're not considering the implementation of this at this time, it doesn't mean we are not continuing discussions about a range of options, including proposals and ideas," she told reporters.

She denied that the Obama administration was sending a mixed message, saying: "We've never ruled it out. We're open to hearing from our partners, and that's what I expect we'll continue to do."

During the past three years of the civil war to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad, the Obama administration has consistently refused to establish a safe haven to protect fleeing Syrians, saying a no-fly zone would be too complicated to set up and patrol.

Retired General John Allen, who is in charge of building a US-led coalition to fight IS, is due to hold talks in Turkey with US pointman in Iraq Brett McGurk on Thursday and Friday amid battles for the Kurdish border town of Kobanie in Syria.

Kerry referred to the millions of refugees who have fled across the Syrian border.

"This should not be a problem which is thrust onto Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, where they bear an incredible burden," Kerry said.

"If Syrian citizens can return to Syria and be protected in an area across the border, there's a lot that would commend that," the top US diplomat added.

"But at the same time, you'd have to guarantee safety, that there wouldn't be attacks by the government."

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State John Kerry suggested on Wednesday that preventing the fall of the Syrian town of Kobani to Islamic State fighters was not a strategic US objective and said the idea of a buffer zone should be thoroughly studied.

"As horrific as it is to watch in real time what is happening in Kobani... you have to step back and understand the strategic objective," Kerry told reporters at a news conference with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond.

“Notwithstanding the crisis in Kobani, the original targets of our efforts have been the command and control centres, the infrastructure,” he said. “We are trying to deprive the [Islamic State] of the overall ability to wage this, not just in Kobani but throughout Syria and into Iraq.”

Kerry also said that he expected Turkey, which has demanded a no-fly zone, a buffer zone in Syria and greater effort against the forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad, to decide “over the next hours, days” what role it may play against the Islamic State group, which the US government refers to as ISIL.

France said on Wednesday it supported the idea of setting up a buffer zone between Turkey and Syria to create a safe haven for displaced people, President Francois Hollande’s office said after he spoke to his Turkish counterpart.

Britain’s Hammond reacted cautiously to the idea, as did Kerry, noting that it has been proposed for some time and saying it deserved close study.

“The idea of a buffer zone is one that has been floated. We have to explore with our other allies and partners what is meant by a buffer zone and how such a concept would work, but I certainly wouldn’t want to rule it out at this stage,” Hammond told reporters.

“The buffer zone is an idea that has been out there. It is worth examining, it’s worth looking at very, very closely,” Kerry said, largely echoing the unenthusiastic stance that the United States has taken towards the proposal.