The hostage swap negotiations between Jordan and the Islamic State group remained frozen Saturday, leaving the fate of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto and Jordanian Air Force pilot Mu'ath al-Kaseasbeh in the air.
Yasuhide Nakayama, state minister for foreign affairs who is heading up Japan's emergency headquarters in Amman, told reporters Saturday morning the situation "is now deadlocked."
"We will keep gathering, analyzing and sharing information to cope with" the hostage crisis, Nakayama said in a briefing aired on NHK Saturday morning.