In Jordan, a sumptuous dish that has its roots in an ancient war has evolved over the centuries to be widely cherished as a symbol of peace and hospitality.

Mansaf -- the kingdom's national dish of lamb cooked in dried yogurt, served with rice and nuts -- is "the king of the Jordanian table", says Ashraf Al-Mubaideen, 47, who runs a traditional restaurant in Amman.

"If you want to honour your guest, there's nothing finer than mansaf," agrees his business partner Tamer al-Majali, 42, about the custom of greeting guests with huge platters piled high.

Iran has named an ambassador to the United Arab Emirates nearly eight years after his predecessor left, as a thaw in relations with the Gulf Arab states picks up pace.

"After some eight years, the foreign ministry has named Reza Ameri as the Islamic Republic of Iran's new ambassador to the United Arab Emirates," Iran's official IRNA news agency reported late Tuesday.

The move comes after Iran welcomed an Emirati ambassador last September ending a six-year absence.

Latif Dalyan offers shirts and sweatpants at knock-down prices to Turkey's earthquake victims from a storefront surrounded by piles of debris.

The last person the 58-year-old shopkeeper wants to blame for his ruined city's troubles is the country's president.

"If there is one man who can make this country stand up again, it is Recep Tayyip Erdogan," Dalyan said near the February quake's epicentre in the city of Kahramanmaras.

"May God give every country a leader like him."

Global criticism and concern mounted Wednesday after Israeli police clashed with Palestinians inside Islam's third-holiest site, sparking a military exchange of rockets and air strikes, with fears of further escalation.

Two more rockets were fired late Wednesday from the Israel-blockaded Gaza Strip towards Israel, the army and witnesses said, and fresh altercations broke out at Al-Aqsa mosque during the Jewish Passover and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

In Cyprus's southern coastal city of Limassol, Russian and Ukrainian firms fleeing wartime conditions, and Israeli investors betting on real estate, have driven prices up and local residents out.

Eleni Constantinidou is one of them, pregnant when her landlord terminated her lease. Unable to find an affordable place in her home town, the Cypriot was forced to move in with her parents, husband and child in tow.

In 2016, it cost her 400 euros ($438) to rent a beachfront apartment in Cyprus's second city where about 176,000 people live.

The United States called Tuesday on its longtime adversary Iran to help end Yemen's conflict by backing a peace process, one year after a truce dramatically reduced fighting.

Iran, which backs Huthi rebels who have seized much of the country, last month announced a major reconciliation deal with Saudi Arabia, which led a devastating air campaign to bolster Yemen's government.

The Taliban have extended a ban on women working for NGOs to the United Nations' mission throughout the country, a UN spokesman announced Tuesday, calling such an order "unacceptable."

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) had said earlier in the day that UN women employees had been blocked from work in eastern Nangarhar province.

Iraq's federal government and the Kurdistan autonomous region signed an accord Tuesday to allow Kurdish oil exports to resume through Turkey after they were halted 10 days earlier.

The agreement, signed in Baghdad in the presence of Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani and Kurdish premier Masrour Barzani, was to be implemented "today", a Kurdish regional government official told AFP.

The deal was described as temporary but signals the end of independent oil exports by northern Iraq's Kurdish regional government and marks a clear limit to its autonomy.

Thousands of Iranians attended a funeral procession in Tehran on Tuesday for two Revolutionary Guards killed in Israeli strikes in Syria last week.

Israel launched several missiles on Friday from the occupied Golan Heights against positions near Damascus, part of a series of attacks over recent days including early Tuesday.

"The Zionists are trying to target the resistance front, but the resistance will become stronger and more motivated," said Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesman Ramazan Sharif, according to the Tasnim News Agency.

The US military said Tuesday it had launched a strike in Syria killing a senior Islamic State group militant responsible for planning attacks in Turkey and Europe.

The strike in northwestern Syria on Monday -- the latest by US forces against the jihadist group -- killed senior IS leader Khalid Aydd Ahmad al-Jabouri, US Central Command said.

He was "responsible for planning ISIS attacks" in Turkey and Europe and "developed the leadership structure for ISIS" in Turkey, CENTCOM said in an updated statement later Tuesday, using another acronym for IS.