Faced with myriad problems including gridlocked traffic and a sinking earth surface in its current capital, Iran is considering a drastic solution -- moving it to an altogether different location on the Gulf of Oman.

Though the idea of moving the capital has cropped up on various occasions since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the proposals were repeatedly shelved as unrealistic due to the massive financial and logistical hurdles.

But reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, who took office in July, has recently revived the idea, citing Tehran's growing challenges.

Once dubbed the capital of the revolution against Bashar al-Assad, Homs saw some of the fiercest fighting in Syria's civil war. Now, displaced people are returning to their neighbourhoods, only to find them in ruins.

It was in Homs that rebels first took up arms to fight Assad's crackdown on protests in 2011.

The military responded by besieging and bombarding rebel areas such as Baba Amr, where US journalist Marie Colvin and French journalist Remi Ochlik were killed in a bombing in 2012.

Washington said Russia and the United States will name teams to negotiate a path to ending the war in Ukraine as soon as possible, as the superpowers met on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia without Kyiv or the EU.

However, no specifics on a possible meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin emerged from the gathering in Riyadh, the first high-level official Washington-Moscow talks since Ukraine's 2022 invasion.

Lebanese leaders said they were in contact with the United States and France to press Israel to fully withdraw, branding its continued presence in five places an "occupation" after a ceasefire deadline expired on Tuesday.

The UN called the incomplete pullout a violation of a Security Council resolution, though it has allowed many displaced residents to return to devastated border villages after more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

Near a south Lebanon border town, residents waited Monday to go home after months of displacement, on the eve of an extended deadline for Israel to withdraw troops under a fragile truce.

"It's our right to return to our town, to our homes, to retrieve the bodies of our martyrs, and return in full freedom," said Hula resident Amin Koteish, a farmer, surrounded by his neighbours.

But their return is not yet guaranteed.

For 500 days since an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza Strip's deadliest war, Mohammed Abu Mursa has grappled with "humiliation, suffering and bloodshed" in his fight for survival.

Abu Mursa and his family have been displaced more than a dozen times since the war began, moving from place to place across the Palestinian territory in a desperate attempt to stay safe, he said.

"It's been 500 days of humiliation, suffering and bloodshed," said the resident of northern Gaza, finally able to return home after a fragile ceasefire took hold on January 19.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday, during talks with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that any deal on the future of war-torn Gaza must boost regional security, the US State Department said.

Rubio, who arrived from Israel accompanied by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, met the de facto ruler ahead of talks expected on Tuesday with a Russian delegation in the Saudi capital.

But the 500-day-old Israel-Hamas war dominated discussions, according to a State Department statement.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Monday against what he called "soft war" tactics employed by enemies in a bid to sow discord within the Islamic republic.

"Today, we have no concerns regarding hard defence or the enemy's military threats. Islamic Iran possesses strong capabilities to counter such threats, ensuring a high level of security for its people," said Khamenei during a speech in Tehran.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will meet US President Donald Trump in Washington next week to discuss a "wide range of issues", a British government spokesperson confirmed on Monday.

Starmer is seeking to foster ties with Trump in a delicate balancing act of maintaining good relations with both the new US administration and the European Union, which Britain left five years ago.

Top US and Russian diplomats will meet in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for talks on resetting the countries' fractured relations and making a tentative start on trying to end the Ukraine war.

Both sides played down the chances that the first high-level meeting between the countries since Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022 would result in a breakthrough.

Nevertheless, the very fact of the talks has triggered concern in Kyiv and Europe -- left reeling by Washington's dramatic diplomatic moves towards the Kremlin.