Lebanon wants direct talks to demarcate its maritime border with Syria so it can begin offshore gas exploration, weeks after reaching a similar agreement with Israel, its top negotiator told AFP.

The US-brokered sea border deal with Israel guarantees "stability" in a volatile region, where the two enemy states seek to exploit potentially gas-rich Mediterranean waters, Elias Bou Saab said.

Beirut now wishes to define its maritime borders with Syria to the north, and Cyprus, to the west, to consolidate its offshore rights.

The US midterms made waves Wednesday at a UN climate summit on the shores of Egypt, with activists urging President Joe Biden to take bolder action against global warming regardless of the election outcome.

Campaigners were confident that Republicans would not be able to undo Biden's $370 billion green energy legislation even if they take one or both houses of Congress.

But with Biden due to join the UN's COP27 climate conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Friday, some had a strong message for the US leader.

Cities in western Iran went on strike Wednesday in solidarity with mourners marking 40 days since security forces killed dozens in a crackdown on protests in the country's strife-torn southeast, rights groups said.

Security forces opened fire on protests that erupted on September 30 after weekly prayers in Zahedan, capital of the restive province of Sistan-Baluchistan on Iran's border with Pakistan.

Lebanon wants talks to demarcate its maritime border with Syria, so that it can begin offshore gas extraction after reaching a similar agreement with Israel, its top negotiator told AFP.

Last month -- despite the countries technically remaining in a state of war -- Israel and Lebanon struck a US-brokered sea border agreement that will potentially open up lucrative offshore gas fields.

Beirut now wishes to define its maritime borders with Syria, to the north, and Cyprus, to the west, to consolidate its offshore rights.

Fractured relations between the United States and China have cast further doubt on whether Beijing will sign up to more climate promises, with pressure mounting on the world's biggest emitter.

US President Joe Biden is expected to be among the leaders to show up at the COP27 summit in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, but his newly reanointed Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will be conspicuous by his absence.

The family of Egypt's jailed dissident Alaa Abdel Fattah, who is refusing food and water, demanded information on his health Wednesday amid what they said were "rumours of force-feeding".

International concern has mounted since Abdel Fattah, 40, escalated his months-long hunger strike by also declining liquids since Sunday, the start of the UN climate summit COP27 hosted by Egypt.

His UK-born mother Laila Soueif has made daily trips this week to the Wadi al-Natroun prison, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Cairo, but has received no update or proof of life.

Israel's president began talks with party leaders Wednesday on the new governing coalition to be headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, after receiving official results of the November 1 election won by the veteran right-winger.

Such presidential consultations had been a source of intrigue after Israel's four previous elections, as it was not immediately clear which leader would get the first shot at forming a coalition, or whether they would be successful.

Two Palestinians including a teenager were killed in unrest in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, one of them in clashes during a visit by right-wing Israeli politicians to a sensitive religious site.

The Palestinian health ministry said Mahdi Mohammad Hashash, 15, died of "serious wounds caused by shrapnel... during the occupation's (Israel's) incursion into Nablus", the largest city in the northern West Bank.

An American woman who had publically accused her Saudi ex-husband of trapping their daughter in the kingdom under so-called guardianship laws said she was released Wednesday following a brief detention over social media posts.

Carly Morris was taken into custody on Monday and the whereabouts of her daughter, eight-year-old Tala, was unknown, according to the Washington-based Freedom Initiative, which describes itself as advocating on behalf of people wrongfully detained in the Middle East and North Africa.

A rare inscription that sheds new light on the use of Canaanite language some 3,700 years ago has been discovered on an ivory comb in southern Israel, archaeologists said Wednesday.

The comb was found at the Tel Lachish site in 2017, but the letters were not noticed until earlier this year following further examination, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said in a statement.

The artefact provides "direct evidence" of the use of the Canaanite alphabet in daily life, said Yosef Garfinkel, an archaeology professor at Hebrew University.