SecState Clinton is "not unduly concerned" about the American Hikers being imprisoned in Iran and rests on hope they'll be freed. Allies in Oman and Iraq, at the behest of the families, are acting a bit more proactively to attain their release.
Egypt's new government expressed a willingness to end the Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty.
Syrian anti-Assad groups have formed an official council. The government is preparing public confessions for an officer that defected in recent months, and was kidnapped from Turkey.
The British & French Prime Ministers received a warm welcome as the first western leaders to visit since the Rebels took Libya.
Mr. Cameron told cheering Libyans that they are an “inspiration to the world” and that Britons salute their courage. Mr. Sarkozy earned the loudest cheers from the crowds in the birthplace of the country's rebel movement, Benghazi. He told them that France believes in a “united Libya, not a divided Libya.”
The two leaders are the first foreign heads of state to visit the nation since the ousting of the longtime Libyan leader, Mr. Gadhafi.
Earlier Thursday, at a press conference in Tripoil, Mr. Cameron called on Mr. Gadhafi and his followers to “give up.” The British leader also promised to help hunt down the former Libyan leader and bring him to justice.
Mr. Cameron and Mr. Sarkozy flew first into Tripoli, where they held talks with Libya's interim government, including with National Transitional Council Chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil.
Mr. Sarkozy said as he arrived in Libya that he hopes for “democracy, peace and reconciliation” in the country. Mr. Cameron also said Britain will look to unfreeze an additional $19 billion in Libyan assets with United Nations approval.
Syrian opposition members announced Thursday the formation of a national council to present a unified front against President Bashar al-Assad.
Marking six months since the uprisings in Syria began, a group of opposition members gathered in Istanbul to introduce a council of 140 members, half living in Syria and the rest exiled dissidents.
A spokesman for the U.S. State Department expressed U.S. support for the group, but also noted the need for coordination as the council faces many challenges.
Meanwhile, the United States is urging Americans to immediately leave Syria, as it tightens its travel warning for the country.
Also Thursday, the Syrian state news agency SANA said it will air the “confessions” of Colonel Hussein al-Harmoush, a senior military officer who publicly defected a couple months ago and fled to Turkey. Syrian activists say al-Harmoush recently was captured by Syrian intelligence in Turkey and brought back to Syria.
Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, during an interview with Turkish television Thursday, said his country's 1979 peace treaty with Israel is “not sacred” and subject to change.
Mr. Sharaf said the agreement, signed at Camp David in the United States, is “always open to modification if that would benefit the region or a just peace.”
The country's military rulers have repeatedly said they are committed to all international pacts signed by former governments, including the Egypt-Israel Treaty.
Altering the accord without Israeli or U.S. consent could lead to the loss of billions of dollars in aid from Washington.
Tensions between Egypt and Israel, which have been rising since former president Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in February, flared after a cross-border attack last month.
Cairo accused Israeli forces of shooting dead five Egyptian security guards during gun battles with Palestinian militants who Israel says had earlier ambushed and killed eight Israelis.
Egyptian protesters stormed the Israeli embassy in Cairo last week in anger at Israel for the border killings.
On Thursday, about 200 Jordanian demonstrators demanded their government close Israel's embassy in the capital, Amman, expel the ambassador and annul a 1994 peace treaty with the Jewish state.
The small group of protesters had gathered at a mosque close to the embassy complex, but they were kept away by large numbers of Jordanian police.
Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab countries to have normalized relations with Israel and their capitals are the only two cities in the region where Israel has an embassy.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the United States remains hopeful that Iran will, as a humanitarian gesture, release the two American hikers jailed in a Tehran prison.
Secretary Clinton Thursday said the U.S. is not unduly concerned because Washington has received word through a number of public and private sources that the hikers – Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal – would be freed.
She said it is not unusual for Iran to take time in implementing decisions, noting previous delays.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told NBC news Tuesday the hikers would be freed within “a couple of days.” But in a statement Wednesday, Iran's judiciary said no decision had been made about their fate.
Meanwhile, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has joined efforts to help free Bauer and Fattal.
Iraq's foreign minister told U.S. and Iraqi officials in Baghdad Thursday his government is making a serious attempt to help free the men, who were arrested near the Iran-Iraq border in 2009 and convicted of spying.
Iran's Sharq newspaper quoted Kurdish Iraqi envoy Nazem Dabbagh Thursday as saying Mr. Talabani intervened after a request from the hikers' family. He said the men will be turned over to the Swiss embassy in Tehran next week.
Oman has also sent an official to Iran to help secure the hikers' freedom. The Gulf Arab country negotiated the release of a third American hiker, Sarah Shourd, who was freed one year ago in Tehran.
The Associated Press reported that an Omani plane is in Tehran ready to ferry the men out if they are released.
Fattal and Bauer's lawyer, Masoud Shafii, said he has been notified by the court that his clients will be released once they each post bail, reportedly set at $500,000.
The hikers' families said this week they were “overjoyed” about reports that the men may soon be released, calling the news a “huge relief.”
Bauer and Fatal were sentenced last month to eight-year prison terms for the spying charges. The pair has insisted that if they strayed over the border into Iran, it was inadvertent.