Saudi Arabia on Sunday pledged $10 million to help prevent an ageing Yemeni oil tanker from unleashing a potentially catastrophic spill in the Red Sea bordering its waters.

The decaying 45-year-old oil tanker known as the FSO Safer, long used as a floating storage platform and now abandoned off the rebel-held Yemeni port of Hodeida, has not been serviced since Yemen was plunged into civil war.

A Saudi-led military coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 after Huthi rebels seized the capital Sanaa the previous year.

An overladen ship crammed with thousands of sheep sank Sunday in Sudan's Red Sea port of Suakin drowning most animals on board but with all crew surviving, officials said.

The livestock vessel was exporting the animals from Sudan to Saudi Arabia when it sank after several thousand more animals were loaded on board than it was meant to carry.

"The ship, Badr 1, sank during the early hours of Sunday morning," a senior Sudanese port official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It was carrying 15,800 sheep, which was beyond its load limits."

Next to a palm tree, the Union Jack hangs limply on a pole outside a simple courthouse built decades ago on this eastern Mediterranean island.

"Morning your honour," the clerk said in English to the British judge, beginning another day at Her Majesty's Court in Waterloo Road, Dhekelia.

In this part of Cyprus, a former British colony, Britain is still in charge and Cypriots appear before the court.

Some on the island liken the arrangement to continued colonisation. Scholars called it "undeniably anachronistic" and "highly unusual".

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas hosted Saturday a US delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, ahead of an expected visit of President Joe Biden.

Abbas reiterated his requests to remove the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) from the US list of terrorist entities during the meeting, his office said.

Hundreds of people and several lawmakers protested Saturday in southern Lebanon against Israel moving a gas production vessel into an offshore field partly claimed by Beirut.

The demonstration comes just days before the US envoy mediating maritime border talks between the two neighbours is expected in Lebanon, and after the ship operated by London-listed Energean Plc arrived in the Karish gas field last week.

A night of clashes between militias in the heart of a residential district of the Libyan capital Tripoli raised fears on Saturday of escalating violence in the conflict-riven country.

The intense fighting that erupted late Friday between two armed groups that back rival prime ministers left at least one person dead and caused significant material damage, a security source told AFP.

Gunfire and explosions rang out across Tripoli during the fighting, described by one resident as possibly the "heaviest" seen in the city for more than a decade.

Syria has confirmed major damage including to runways at Damascus International Airport, which was closed for a second day Saturday for repairs after Israeli air strikes.

The transport ministry said in a statement that runways were out of service.

Since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes against its neighbour, targeting government troops as well as allied Iran-backed forces and fighters from Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

Iran and Venezuela signed a 20-year deal on cooperation between the two allies subject to US sanctions during a visit Saturday to the Islamic republic by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The inking of the agreement "shows the determination of the high-level officials of the two countries for development of relations in different fields," Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said.

Maduro, speaking at a joint news conference in Tehran, said the cooperation covered the energy and financial sectors, as well as "work together on defence projects".

Repairs have begun at the airport in Syria's capital, which was closed for a second day Saturday after Israeli air strikes, Syria's transport ministry said.

The ministry confirmed in a statement that runways were out of service with serious damage after the attack.

Since civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes against its neighbour, targeting government troops as well as allied Iran-backed forces and fighters from Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

But rarely have such attacks caused major flight disruptions.

Clashes between armed groups erupted in Libya's capital on Friday night, according to local media, as the country reels from a failed coup attempt three weeks ago.

Heavy exchanges of gunfire and explosions ricocheted across several districts of Tripoli on Friday, according to an AFP journalist, while images broadcast by local press showed civilians fleeing heavily trafficked areas.

The intense fighting involved two influential militias from western Libya, local media reported.