The death toll from the collapse of a tower block in southwestern Iran rose to 19, state media reported on Thursday, making it the country's deadliest such disaster in years.

A large section of the 10-storey Metropol building that was under construction in the city of Abadan, Khuzestan province, crashed to the ground on Monday, with initially dozens feared trapped.

"The exact number of people trapped under the rubble is not known, but so far, the bodies of 19 people have been recovered," state news agency IRNA quoted city governor Ehsan Abbaspour as saying.

The UN special envoy has urged Yemen's warring parties to renew their two-month truce, praising its "tangible benefits" as the deadline approaches next week.

Swedish diplomat Hans Grundberg said the first nationwide truce since 2016 had provided an opportunity to break the cycle of violence that has left hundreds of thousands dead and driven millions to the brink of famine.

"We have seen the tangible benefits the truce has delivered so far for the daily lives of Yemenis," Grundberg said in a statement late on Wednesday.

The US pointman on Iran warned Wednesday it was more likely than not that talks would fail to revive a nuclear deal as he vowed no let-up in pressure if Tehran clings to its demands.

Rob Malley, who has led more than a year of indirect talks with Iran in Vienna, nonetheless told lawmakers that President Joe Biden's administration still supported the 2015 nuclear accord and was ready to lift sanctions if it secures an agreement.

Turkey's diplomatic thaw with Israel will help the Palestinians, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday during the first trip to Israel by Ankara's top diplomat in 15 years.

Cavusoglu, who met Palestinian officials in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, was in Jerusalem as Turkey and Israel seek to mend ties which began to fray following an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip in 2008.

Ties fully collapsed in 2010 when Israeli forces stormed a Turkish aid ship bound for the blockaded Gaza Strip, in a botched operation that claimed the lives of 10 Turks.

Hundreds of protesters in war-torn Yemen marched Wednesday against the years-long blockade of a major city by Huthi rebels, as UN-brokered talks to end the siege started in Jordan.

Demonstrators in Taez, Yemen's third biggest city, chanted "Oh, you Huthi, you backstabber".

Among the crowds, which included women and children, some held up signs in English that read: "End Taez seige".

Holding talks to end the blockade was agreed as part of a two-month renewable truce that began in April, and which has significantly reduced fighting in the seven-year civil war.

As the Ukraine war drags on, more and more Russian professionals are moving to Dubai, the business-friendly Gulf emirate that offers an escape from the impact of Western sanctions.

Entrepreneurs, lawyers and art dealers are among those flocking to the financial hub in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, which frustrated Washington and other Western allies by refusing to join a UN Security Council vote condemning Russia's war.

Turkey's diplomatic thaw with Israel will help the Palestinians, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Monday, in the first trip to Israel by Ankara's top diplomat in 15 years.

Cavusoglu, who met Palestinian officials in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, was in Jerusalem as Turkey and Israel seek to mend ties following a breakdown that began during an Israeli military operation in Gaza in 2008.

Cavusoglu and his Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid stressed that economic ties had continued to grow despite years of acrimony between the two countries.

US oil and gas firms took advantage of energy worries over the Ukraine war to push their fossil fuel products and resist climate change regulatory measures, an analysis showed on Wednesday.

The London-based think tank InfluenceMap analysed advertisements and declarations by the companies in the weeks before and after Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

It said the companies spread the misleading message that US climate change policies were to blame for rising energy prices and that more US-produced oil and gas was the solution.

The United States on Tuesday warned Turkey against launching a new military operation in northern Syria, saying the uneasy NATO ally would be putting US troops at risk.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that Turkey would soon launch a new military operation into northern Syria to create a 30-kilometer (19-mile) "security zone" along the border.

An Iraqi man who sought political asylum in the United States plotted to kill former president George W. Bush, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Shihab Ahmed Shihab, 52, told an FBI informant that he wanted to smuggle at least four other Iraqis into the country over the border with Mexico to undertake the plot, according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court in Columbus, Ohio.

Two of the hit team would be former Iraqi intelligence agents, while the others would be members of Islamic State or another Qatar-based hardline group Shihab called "al-Raed."