Peace between Israelis and Palestinians is "still possible,” Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday, hailing U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's efforts to revive stalled talks.

In a speech to the World Economic Forum in the town of al-Shunah on the banks of the Dead Sea in Jordan, Abbas called on Israel to "end the occupation of our lands,” evacuate settlements and free Palestinian prisoners.

Syrian forces entered a key objective north of the besieged central town of Qusayr on Saturday, the army said, battling rebels inside the former military airport of Dabaa.

"The Syrian army infiltrated Dabaa airport from the northwest, and now fighting is taking place inside the airport after they broke the rebel defense lines," an army source said.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki Friday amid anxiety over a rash of bombings and violence in the country and the situation in Syria, the White House said.

"The vice president expressed concern about the security situation in Iraq and pledged continued U.S. support for Iraq in its fight against terrorism," said a statement from Biden's office.

Syrian troops have captured much of the rebel stronghold of Qusayr, in central Homs province, squeezing opposition fighters into the north of the strategic town, a military officer told Agence France Presse on Friday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog said regime forces backed by members of Hizbullah were bombing northern areas of the city, encircling rebel fighters there.

The United States, Turkey and Qatar called Friday for an urgent debate on Syria at the U.N.'s top human rights body next week, citing the escalating conflict and the regime's assault on the central town of Qusayr.

"We ... request the Human Rights Council to hold an urgent debate on the deteriorating situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic, and the recent killings in al-Qusayr," the ambassadors of the three countries wrote in their request to council president Remigiusz Henczel.

The Arab League must "apologize" and cancel its resolutions on Syria before it can consider playing any role in ending the conflict in the country, Syria's information minister said on Friday.

"The attempt by some Arab regimes to talk about finding a role for themselves in (resolving the conflict in) Syria is absurd and impossible," state news agency SANA quoted Omran al-Zohbi as saying.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet his Russian and French counterparts in Paris on Monday ahead of an expected international conference on ending Syria's conflict, officials said.

Kerry and Sergei Lavrov will meet "to continue discussions from their meeting just a few weeks ago in Russia, and provide updates as they plan ahead for the international conference on Syria," a State Department official said in a statement Friday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Friday to take "hard decisions" to revive the Middle East peace process, which has stalled for almost three years.

Kerry has been pressing Israel and the Palestinians to resume direct peace talks that broke down in September 2010, notably over the issue of Jewish settlement building.

International efforts to organize a Syria peace conference are at fever pitch, but in Jordan's Zaatari camp, Syrian refugees are more concerned with the misery of their daily lives than diplomatic maneuvering.

"To be honest, we're fed up with these conferences, there have been many... without results. We want a radical solution," said Saleh, a former laborer from Syria's southern Daraa province.

Fighters loyal to al-Qaida have seized control of villages near the Yemeni port city of Mukalla in an apparent bid to take over swathes of the southeastern province of Hadramawt, the interior ministry and residents said on Friday.

The ministry condemned what it said was a "terrorist plot to proclaim an Islamic emirate in the Ghayl Bawazir area" near Mukalla, the provincial capital.