AMMAN: Jordanian Premier Zaid Rifai denied reports … that Jordan and Syria are ready to end the state of war with Israel in return for Israeli withdrawal from parts of the occupied west bank and the Golan Heights. The Premier emphasised that this report “has no foundation, is ... false and designed to harm Jordan’s and Syria’s joint march”. The Premier added that King Hussein’s and Syrian President Hafez Assad’s “attitudes toward our sacred cause [are] well known … and nobody could harm their noble ... stand”. — News agencies

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies in Karachi,] Prince Karim Aga Khan … an­­n­o­­unced the institution of an international prize for Muslim architecture, on the lines of the Nobel Prize, to be adjudicated and awarded in Pakistan. Addressing [a] meeting … the Aga Khan said: Beginning in 1980 and every three years thereafter, I propose to of­­fer a substantial monetary prize to the arc­hitect who has completed a building which most successfully embraces the spirit of Mus­lim architecture. … It will be open to architects of any nationality who have designed and completed Muslim buildings in any cou­ntry … and will thus be truly international in scope.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2026