Two hardline ministers in Israel's rightwing government came out swinging on Sunday against any possible slowdown in Jewish settlement building as part of a deal to kickstart talks with the Palestinians.

Their comments come after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday said Israeli and Palestinian negotiators had agreed to meet to pave the way for a resumption of direct peace talks, stalled for close to three years.

Human Rights Watch on Sunday blasted Kuwait over a 20-month jail sentence served on a female online activist for "offending the emir" and urged the Gulf state to end such prosecutions.

The appeals court on Wednesday upheld the sentence on Sara al-Darees for making remarks on Twitter deemed insulting to the emir.

A wave of bombings killed 65 people in Baghdad province on Saturday night, officials said, as Iraq struggles to contain its worst violence since 2008, in which over 520 have died this month.

Twelve car bombs and a roadside bomb hit the city of Baghdad, while another bomb exploded in Madain to the south of the capital, a police colonel and a medical official said.

Syrian Kurdish fighters in the north fought fierce battles against jihadists and captured a commander of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) late Saturday, a monitoring group said.

"Battles pitting fighters from the Kurdish Fighters brigade against ISIS and other groups are raging on in several areas of Tal Abyad in Raqa province, after (Kurdish) fighters captured ISIS' emir in the town," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Renewing negotiations with the Palestinians is "vital" for Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday, after both sides agreed to lay the groundwork to resume talks frozen for three years.

"The resumption of the peace process is a vital strategic interest of the state of Israel," he said in a statement.

Egypt's interim president on Saturday appointed a committee of experts to amend the constitution that was suspended following the military's overthrow of president Mohammed Morsi, the presidency said.

Under a decree issued by the caretaker president, Adly Mansour, the committee, which consists of four university professors and six judges, will begin its work on Sunday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's efforts have led to an agreement in principle to resume Israeli-Palestinian peace talks but the devil remains in the details of the negotiating terms.

"I am pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement that establishes a basis for resuming direct final status negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis," he told reporters in Amman late Friday.

The new leader of Syria's main opposition National Coalition has set his priority on securing arms for rebels fighting regime troops since 2011, in remarks published on Saturday.

Ahmad Assi Jarba spoke in Saudi Arabia after a meeting with Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz on Thursday ahead of a tour of Western capitals next week during which he will meet French President Francois Hollande.

The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council welcomed on Saturday EU plans to ban its 28 members from dealing with Jewish settlements, hoping the move would push forward peace efforts.

The guidelines, published in the EU's Official Journal Friday, forbid EU member states from funding or dealing with entities in territories occupied by the Jewish state in 1967.

The wife of acclaimed Syrian artist Youssef Abdelke, whose works are displayed in museums around the world, appealed for his release on Saturday, after his arrest by regime security forces.

He had been arrested at a security checkpoint in the western port city of Tartus two days previously, along with two fellow members of the Communist Labor Party.