The EU's foreign policy chief voiced hope Wednesday at reviving the Iran nuclear deal within days as Israel's leader, a strong opponent, made his case with US President Joe Biden.

The Biden administration is eager to restore the deal trashed by former president Donald Trump and says that Iran has backed down on some demands that held up diplomacy for a year and a half.

"I am hoping that in the coming days we are not going to lose this momentum and we can close the deal," top EU diplomat Josep Borrell said after an informal meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers in Prague.

Technology giant Microsoft announced Wednesday it will create 36,000 jobs in Qatar to boost the Gulf state's efforts to move away from reliance on its oil and gas industry.

Created with support from the Qatar government, the new cloud data centre will be one of the US firm's biggest international projects.

Microsoft Qatar general manager Lana Khalaf said it will help the tiny Gulf state become a "digital hub for the region and the world".

Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr may have declared his "definitive retirement" from politics this week, but the violence that erupted after his announcement points to murkier intentions, analysts believe.

"Sadr is looking to become the most powerful Shiite political player in Iraq," Renad Mansour of British think tank Chatham House told AFP.

"That is his agenda, and part of achieving that requires destabilising not just the political system as such, but particularly the Shiite house and building it back up with him at the centre of it."

Iran's judiciary said on Wednesday that 21 people including high-ranking local officials have been jailed after they were convicted over the deadly collapse of a building that triggered widespread anti-corruption protests.

The 10-storey Metropol building that was under construction in the city of Abadan in southwestern Khuzestan province collapsed on May 23, leading to the deaths of 43 people.

Iran wants stronger guarantees included in a text put forward by the EU aiming to salvage Tehran's landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Wednesday.

"We are thinking about how to reach a strong text on the issue of the guarantee, and to obtain stronger guarantees," he told a joint news conference in Moscow with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Israeli archaeologists on Wednesday displayed a rare tusk half a million years old, from an enormous now-extinct elephant, which scholars see as testament to a social ritual by prehistoric humans.

The 2.6-metre (8.5-foot) artifact, weighing approximately 150 kilos (330 pounds), was discovered by biologist Eitan Mor at an excavation site near Revadim, a village in southern Israel.

The excavation was managed by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), which said the fossil tusk was the largest to be found in the Near East.

For the first time in more than three decades, Sudanese journalists have formed an independent union to shore up hard-won press freedoms that have been imperilled since last year's military coup.

The journalists' syndicate held elections on Saturday, the first since ousted president Omar al-Bashir dissolved independent unions after rising to power in 1989.

"It's a big step towards building the civilian democratic state that Sudanese people aspire to," said Mohamed Abdelaziz, a member of the newly formed union.

Doctors in the occupied West Bank are struggling to save Palestinians from permanent disability after being shot in an upsurge of violence linked to Israeli raids targeting Palestinian militants.

At Rafidia Surgical Hospital in Nablus, in the northern West Bank, a teenager with bandaged legs was carried up the stairs by another boy.

He had been shot below the knee in overnight clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian residents of Balata, a refugee camp on the edge of the city.

A months-long political crisis in Iraq showed little sign of abating Wednesday despite a fresh push for negotiations after nearly 24 hours of deadly violence between rival Shiite factions ended.

Baghdad's Green Zone, home to government buildings and embassies, returned to normality after 30 people were killed and 570 wounded in clashes pitting supporters of powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr against pro-Iran factions.

In the heart of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank, Palestinians with learning disabilities are front and centre at a new boutique hotel welcoming guests from across the globe.

Showcasing their skills at the hotel is intended to make Palestinians with disabilities more visible and overhaul perceptions within the community.

The hotel is located near the Church of the Nativity, one of the most important sites in the Holy Land, where Christians believe Jesus was born and crowds of pilgrims stroll early on a hot summer morning.