French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday warmly welcomed Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for talks in Paris, defying anger sparked by hosting the controversial strongman less than four years after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The meeting is the latest step in the diplomatic rehabilitation of the de-facto leader of the kingdom who became a pariah in the West following the killing of Khashoggi by Saudi agents inside Saudi's Istanbul consulate.

Hundreds of supporters of powerful Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr danced and sang in parliament Wednesday after storming Baghdad's high-security Green Zone in protest at a rival bloc's nomination for prime minister.

Police fired barrages of tear gas in a bid to stop the protesters from breaching the gates of the heavily fortified Green Zone, but the crowds surged forward and entered parliament.

Supporters of powerful Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr on Wednesday stormed parliament after penetrating the capital's high-security government Green Zone, protesting against a rival bloc's nomination for prime minister.

Protesters "stormed the parliament" after initially being stopped by police firing a barrage of tear gas, a security source told AFP on condition of anonymity.

State agency INA said on messaging app Telegram that "protesters have entered the parliament building".

The heavily fortified Green Zone is home to government buildings and diplomatic missions.

Iran's intelligence ministry said Wednesday that agents linked to Israel's Mossad who were arrested last week were also members of an outlawed Kurdish rebel group who planned to target a "sensitive defence centre."

The ministry had announced on Saturday that it arrested "members of a terrorist organisation who work for the Zionist spy agency Mossad and were sent to (Iran) to carry out (a) terrorist operation."

Grain silos at Beirut's blast-hit port are at risk of collapsing after a fire this month, Lebanon's caretaker prime minister said Wednesday, a week before the explosion's second anniversary.

"The northern group of silos are now in danger of falling," Najib Mikati announced in a statement that said the silos still contained thousands of tonnes of wheat and corn.

The warning comes two weeks after a fire erupted in the port's northern silos due to the fermentation of the remaining grain stocks along with soaring summer temperatures.

Morad Tahbaz, an environmental campaigner with UK and US citizenship, has been temporarily released from jail in Iran but London has "unfinished" business to secure his real freedom, his daughter said on Wednesday.

Tahbaz, 69, who has Iranian citizenship as well, is currently at his family home in Tehran after being released from Evin prison on temporary furlough with an ankle monitoring bracelet, Roxanne Tahbaz confirmed.

Rockets hit the vicinity of the Turkish consulate in Iraq's main northern city of Mosul causing damage but no casualties, Iraqi and Turkish sources said Wednesday.

The overnight fire came after deadly shelling blamed on the Turkish army killed nine civilians last week, prompting anti-Turkish protests in cities across Iraq.

Four rockets hit, causing damage to cars parked in the street near the consulate, provincial lawmaker Shirwan Dobardani told AFP.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

A futuristic Saudi megacity is to feature two skyscrapers extending across a swathe of desert and mountain terrain, according to the latest disclosures on the project by the kingdom's de facto ruler.

The parallel structures of mirror-encased skyscrapers extending over 170 kilometres (more than 100 miles), known collectively as The Line, form the heart of the Red Sea megacity NEOM, a plank of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's bid to diversify the Gulf state's oil-dependent economy.

Israeli generic drug maker Teva has reached an agreement in principle to pay $4.25 billion over 13 years to settle a series of court cases over its role in the US opioid epidemic.

If the deal is finalized, Teva would become the latest major company to reach a settlement over the crisis which caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and ravaged communities across the country.

Morocco and Israel added legal links to a growing list of cooperation accords since they normalised relations in 2020, during a visit Tuesday by Israeli Justice Minister Gideon Saar.

He signed a judicial accord in Rabat with his Moroccan counterpart Abdellatif Ouahbi.

A joint statement said the two countries would share expertise and modernise their judicial systems through digitalisation, while cooperating in the fight against organised crime, terrorism and human trafficking.