King Abdullah II vowed Sunday to protect Jordan from the war in Syria, after the United States announced its warplanes and missiles will remain in the kingdom at the end of military exercises.

"Should the world not act and help us adequately address this issue, and should this issue become a threat... then we are capable at any time to take the necessary measures to protect our country and people's interests," said the Jordanian ruler.

Saudi Arabia has cut back the number of pilgrims that may perform the hajj this year due to construction work aimed at expanding the holy site of Mecca, the hajj minister said.

The authorities had decided to reduce by half the number of pilgrims coming from within Saudi Arabia, and by about 20 percent those from abroad, said Bandar Hajjar.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday the world should keep up pressure on Iran to rein in its nuclear program and avoid thinking the election of a moderate president will bring change.

"The international community should not fall into wishful thinking and be tempted to ease pressure on Iran to stop its nuclear program," Netanyahu said at the start a meeting of his cabinet.

The election of moderate cleric Hassan Rowhani as Iran president signals a return of hope and reforms and that the people desire a policy of moderation over extremism, newspapers said on Sunday.

"A salute to Iran and to the Sheikh of hope," the pro-reformist Etemad daily declared on its front-page over a color picture of a smiling Rowhani flashing a V-for-victory sign.

Leaders of Gulf states, which have tense relations with Iran, have swiftly welcomed moderate cleric Hassan Rowhani's election as the new president of the Islamic republic, several state news agencies said.

"We look forward to working together for the good of this region and the Emirati and Iranian peoples," the UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan wrote in a telegram to Rowhani, state news agency WAM said late Saturday.

A wave of car bombs and shootings, mostly targeting Shiites, killed 25 people Sunday as Iraq grapples with a spike in violence and prolonged political deadlock, sparking fears of all-out sectarian war.

In all, at least 10 vehicles rigged with explosives went off in eight cities in Iraq's Shiite Muslim-majority south during morning rush hour, leaving around 100 people wounded, while the main northern city of Mosul witnessed a deadly shooting.

Extremist fighters claiming to be from an al-Qaida-linked group have blown up a Shiite religious building in the Syrian province of Deir Ezzor, a watchdog said on Sunday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Right said the attack occurred on Friday in the eastern village of Hatlah, where rebel fighters killed at least 60 Shiites earlier in the week.

Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi on Saturday announced the "definitive" severing of relations with war-torn Syria, which is suffering from more than two years of civil war.

Egypt "decided today to definitively break off relations with the current regime in Syria, to close that regime's embassy in Cairo and to recall Egypt's charge d'affaires" from Damascus, Morsi told thousands of Islamist supporters in a Cairo stadium for a "Support for Syria" rally.

Israel reacted to the election of Iran's new president on Saturday by saying it was supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who decides on nuclear policy, not the president.

"Iran's nuclear program has so far been determined by Khamenei, and not by Iran's president," the foreign ministry said after Hassan Rowhani was elected to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The key opposition Syrian National Coalition urged newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rowhani on Saturday to review his country's support for the Syrian regime.

The "Coalition believes that it is its duty to call on the new president of Iran to rectify the mistakes made by the Iranian leadership," the group said, in reference to Tehran's staunch backing of President Bashar Assad.