Human Rights Watch accused Jordan on Wednesday of leaving hundreds of Syrian refugees stranded in the desert along its border with little access to aid after closing informal frontier crossings.

"Jordanian authorities have severely restricted" the movement since March of refugees fleeing the war in Syria, the watchdog said in a statement.

Jordan on Monday sentenced four people to two years in jail each for having tried to join the ranks of the Islamic State group and for promoting the jihadists online.

The kingdom is one of five Arab nations that joined a U.S.-led air campaign against the Sunni extremist group that has declared a "caliphate" straddling the borders of neighboring Iraq and Syria.

The head of the U.N. refugee agency appealed on Saturday to the international community to boost development aid countries hosting Syrian refugees such as Jordan and Lebanon.

"They are the first line of defense for global collective security and they are pillars, essential pillars, for regional security," Antonio Guterres told The Associated Press at a regional World Economic Forum conference held in Jordan.

One of Iraq's leading Sunni Arab politicians, Deputy Prime Minister Saleh Mutlaq, branded as "shameful" Friday the army's chaotic pullout from Anbar provincial capital Ramadi.

Mutlaq, who is himself from the overwhelmingly Sunni province, said the Shiite-led government would discipline officers who had given up the fight as Islamic State jihadists overran the city last Sunday.

Jordan on Tuesday rejected Syrian accusations that "terrorists" were being given military training on its soil, insisting Amman favored a political solution to its neighbor’s conflict.

The Syrian foreign ministry, in a protest letter sent to the United Nations on Monday, alleged Jordan "provides logistical support to armed terrorist groups, including (al-Qaida affiliate) al-Nusra Front".

Syria has accused Jordan of training "terrorists" on its soil and urged the U.N. Security council to force an end to Amman's backing of rebel groups.

The accusation came in a letter sent Monday by the foreign ministry to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the president of the U.N. Security Council, the official news agency SANA said.

A wealthy Canadian-Jordanian businessman, who was invited to the West Bank for an investment conference, has been arrested by Israel and held without legal advice, his lawyer said Monday.

According to Avi BarAm, Ibrahim Siyyam tried to cross from Jordan into the West Bank with a group of businessmen earlier this month but was detained by Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency and questioned without access to a lawyer.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that war-torn Somalia was facing a better future, as he made a landmark visit as the most senior U.S. official to visit since Washington's doomed military intervention more than two decades ago.

The top U.S. diplomat spent just a few hours in the capital, Mogadishu, and did not venture out of the heavily-fortified airport, where he met Somalia's internationally-backed President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmake.

Lebanon's land exports to Gulf markets have been choked off, leaving millions of dollars in goods stranded after the closure of a vital crossing on the Syrian-Jordanian border last month.

The Nasib border point was the last remaining gateway for Lebanese truck drivers transporting agricultural and industrial products to Iraq and Gulf countries.

Jordan's authorization of a breakaway wing of the Muslim Brotherhood has sent tensions soaring between the decades-old organization and the government, accused of exploiting the rift to weaken the kingdom's main opposition force.

In early March, the government gave its consent to the formation of the splinter Brotherhood group, led by a former head of the movement.