Egypt's interim president on Sunday made a rare visit to see the pontiff of the nation's Orthodox Christians at St. Mark's Cathedral, the papal seat in central Cairo, according to a brief statement by the church.

The highly symbolic visit to Pope Tawadros II by Adly Mansour was made ahead of the Coptic Christmas, which falls on Tuesday.

Pope Francis said Sunday he will make his first trip to the Holy Land, visiting Amman, Bethlehem and Jerusalem from May 24 to 26.

"In the climate of joy typical of this Christmas period, I would like to announce that from May 24 to 26, God willing, I will carry out a pilgrimage to the Holy Land," Francis told crowds gathered in St Peter's Square for the traditional Angelus prayer.

More than 30,000 African asylum seekers who entered Israel illegally protested in Tel Aviv on Sunday, police said, in the biggest rally ever staged by migrants in the Jewish state.

"More than 30,000 demonstrators marched peacefully in Tel Aviv," police spokeswoman Lubra Samri told Agence France Presse.

Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon was on Sunday facing "imminent" death, the Tel Aviv hospital where he is in critical condition said.

The health of the 85-year-old Sharon, who was dubbed "the Bulldozer" both for his style and physique, has been worsening since Wednesday when he suffered serious kidney problems after surgery.

Two days of clashes between Shiite rebels and Sunni tribesmen fighting alongside hardline Salafists in northern Yemen have killed at least 23 people, sources said on Sunday.

Fighting has centered for months on a Salafist mosque and Koranic school in Dammaj, which has been besieged by the Shiite rebels known as Huthis.

A senior Iraqi military commander said Sunday that it will take a few days to fully dislodge al-Qaida-linked fighters from two key western cities.

Lt. Gen. Rasheed Fleih, who leads the Anbar Military Command, told the state television Sunday that "two to three days" are needed to push the militants out of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi. Fleih added that pro-government Sunni tribes are leading the operations while the army only is offering aerial cover and logistics on the ground. He didn't elaborate on the operations.

The United States is open to "helpful" Iranian input during an upcoming peace conference in Switzerland aimed at ending Syria's war, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday.

"We're happy to have Iran be helpful," he told reporters in Jerusalem.

A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 767 jet made an emergency landing in the kingdom's Muslim holy city Medina on Sunday, injuring 29 people, the airline and aviation authority said.

The Saudia aircraft was traveling from Iran's second city of Mashhad with 315 people on board, General Authority of Civil Aviation spokesman Khalid al-Khaybari told Agence France Presse.

Israel rejects any U.S.-proposed security concessions for the Jordan Valley, a cabinet member close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday, as U.S. Secretary John Kerry visited the Middle East.

"Security must remain in our hands. Anyone who proposes a solution in the Jordan Valley by deploying an international force, Palestinian police or technological means ... does not understand the Middle East," Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz told Israeli public radio.

Secretary of State John Kerry Sunday rejected Israeli and Palestinian remarks the U.S. was biased as he made a whistlestop tour of allies Jordan and Saudi Arabia to woo support for his peace plan.

Kerry promised any agreed plan would be "fair and balanced" and likened his efforts to broker a compromise between the conflicting demands of the two sides to a puzzle.