Kill our pilot and we'll execute ALL your prisoners': Jordan 'says it will hang its ISIS captives' if airman hostage is dead pilot hostage
The government has apparently warned that Sajida al-Rishawi and other jailed ISIS commanders would be 'quickly judged and sentenced' in revenge for Muath al-Kaseasbeh's death.
It comes after a deadline for a possible prisoner swap allegedly set by ISIS passed yesterday with no clue over the fate of al-Kaseasbeh or fellow Japanese hostage Kenji Goto.
Intelligence sources said ISIS's refusal to prove that al-Kaseasbeh was alive meant any deal with the militants was doomed.
Now Jordan has reportedly stepped up its rhetoric by warning of its intent to retaliate if the negotiations end in bloodshed.
Elijah Magnier, chief international correspondent for Kuwait's Al Rai newspaper, told MailOnline: 'I have reliable contact in the Jordanian government who says a message has been passed to ISIS.
'It warns that if they kill the pilot they will implement the death sentences for Sajida and other ISIS prisoners as soon as possible.'
Shortly after reports of the ultimatum emerged, Jordan issued a statement saying they were still waiting for proof that the captured F-16 pilot was still alive.
Jordan had agreed to an ISIS demand to free al-Rishawi who failed to fulfil her Al Qaeda mission as a suicide bomber.
In return, ISIS said it would not execute the 26-year-old pilot, who was seized in December after crashing near its HQ in the Syrian city of Raqqa.
In its latest audio recording, ISIS threatened to kill al-Kaseasbeh if a deadline was not kept for the release of al-Rishawi by dusk Iraq time yesterday - around 5.30pm (2.30pm GMT).
But it appeared to make no promises to release him, another condition the Jordanian government is demanding.
It was not clear from the recording what would happen to Mr Goto if the deadline was missed.
Japan also said it had no new progress to report.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said every effort was being made to secure the release of journalist Kenji Goto.
'We are gathering and analysing information while asking for cooperation from Jordan and other countries, making every effort to free Kenji Goto,' he told a parliamentary panel.
Government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters repeated Japan's 'strong trust' in Jordan to help save the freelance journalist.
Mr Suga said the government had been in close contact with Mr Goto's wife Rinko Jogo, who released a statement pleading for her husband's life.
'I fear that this is the last chance for my husband, and we now have only a few hours left,' Ms Jogo said in a statement released through the Rory Peck Trust, a London-based organisation for freelance journalists.
Ms Jogo said she had avoided public comment until the last minute to try to protect her daughters, a newborn baby and a two-year-old, from media attention.
An audio message purportedly posted online by IS group said the Jordanian pilot, Lieutenant Muath al-Kaseasbeh, would be killed if would-be suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi was not delivered to the Turkish border by sunset yesterday, Iraq time. There was no mention on whether the pilot or Mr Goto would be traded for her.
The authenticity of the recording could not be verified independently but the possibility of a swap was raised on Wednesday when Jordan said it was willing to trade Rishawi for the pilot.
After sundown in the Middle East, with no news on the fate of either Lt Kaseasbeh or Mr Goto, the families' agonising wait dragged on.
In the Jordanian capital Amman, the pilot's brother Jawdat Kaseasbeh, said his family had 'no clue' where the negotiations stood.
'We received no assurances from anyone that he is alive,' he said. 'We are waiting, just waiting.'
Jordan's government spokesman, Mohammed al-Momani, signalled last night that, in any case, a swap was on hold because the hostage-takers had not delivered proof the pilot was still alive.
Rishawi, 44, faces death by hanging for her role in a suicide bombing, one of three simultaneous attacks on Amman hotels in November 2005 that killed 60 people.
She survived because her belt of explosives did not detonate. She initially confessed, but later recanted, saying she was an unwilling participant.
She is from the Iraqi city of Ramadi and has close family ties to the Iraqi branch of al Qaida, a precursor of IS. Three of her brothers were al Qaida operatives killed in fighting in Iraq.
Jordan has faced tough choices in the hostage drama.
Releasing Rishawi, implicated in the worst terror attack in Jordan, would be at odds with the government's tough stance on Islamic extremism.
But King Abdullah is under domestic pressure to bring home Lt Kaseasbeh, who was captured in December after his Jordanian F-16 crashed near the IS' de facto capital of Raqqa in Syria.
He is the first foreign military pilot to be captured since the US and its allies began air strikes against IS more than four months ago.
Jordan's participation in the air strikes is unpopular in the kingdom and the pilot is seen by some as the victim of a war they feel should not involve the country.
Lt Kaseasbeh's relatives have expressed such views and accused the government of bungling efforts to win his freedom.
'They abandoned Muath, the son of the army!' chanted protesters gathered at a 'diwan', or meeting place, in Amman for tribesmen from Karak, southern Jordan.
Ms Jogo has revealed that she exchanged several emails with her husband's captors and that in the past 20 hours she received one that appeared to be their final demand.
She urged the Japanese and Jordanian governments to finalise a swap that would free both hostages.
'I beg the Jordanian and Japanese governments to understand that the fates of both men are in their hands,' she said.
The hostage drama began last week after ISIS released a video showing Mr Goto and another Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa kneeling in orange jumpsuits beside a masked man who threatened to kill them in 72 hours unless Japan paid a £132 million ransom.
That demand has since apparently shifted to one for the release of Rishawi.
The militants have reportedly killed Mr Yukawa, 42, although that has not been confirmed.