An American tourist poses for a holiday snap in Iraq, in front of the blue-brick Ishtar Gate that was rebuilt at the ancient site of Babylon under dictator Saddam Hussein.

Most foreigners here since Saddam's ouster in a 2003 US-led invasion have worn army fatigues and carried guns -- but more recently there has been a trickle of camera-toting travel pioneers.

"Iraq was in my top three countries," said the visitor to Babylon, 50-year-old Californian Ileana Ovalle, who was excited to see the millennia-old Mesopotamian site.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the top diplomats of Israel and four Arab states wrapped up a landmark meeting Monday vowing to boost cooperation, which Israel said would send a strong message to its arch foe Iran.

The talks brought together for the first time on Israeli soil the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco -- which all normalised ties with the Jewish state in 2020 -- and of Egypt, a country formally at peace with Israel since 1979.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel Saturday for landmark talks with Arab countries which normalised relations with the Jewish state in the US-brokered Abraham Accords.

Top diplomats of the US, Israel, Morocco, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates will meet in the Negev desert Sunday and Monday to mark the shift in Arab-Israeli relations that began in late 2020.

Yemen's Huthi rebels announced a three-day truce with the Saudi-led coalition and dangled the prospect of a "permanent" ceasefire on Saturday, the seventh anniversary of a brutal conflict that has left millions on the brink of famine.

A day after a wave of Huthi drone and missile attacks on Saudi targets, including an oil plant that turned into an inferno near the Formula One race in Jeddah, political leader Mahdi al-Mashat put rebel operations on hold.

The European Union's coordinator for efforts to restore the Iran nuclear deal was due in Tehran for Sunday talks, as its foreign policy chief saw a renewed accord in "days".

Iran has been engaged in negotiations to revive the accord formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia directly, and the United States indirectly.

Parties have signalled for weeks that the negotiations are close to an agreement, but that "political decisions" are required from Tehran and Washington.

The Taliban's ban on girls' education won't last forever, Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai said on Saturday, emphasising that Afghan women now know what it is to be "empowered".

The hard-line Afghan regime closed girls' secondary schools just hours after reopening them this week, prompting a small protest by women and girls in the capital Kabul.

"I think it was much easier for the Taliban (to enforce) a ban on girls' education back in 1996," Yousafzai, who won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for her fight for all children's right to education, told the Doha Forum.

Saudi forces destroyed explosives-laden boats and launched air strikes in Yemen on Saturday after Huthi rebel drones and missiles hit targets around the country, setting off an inferno at an oil plant within sight of Jeddah's Formula One race.

Three people were killed in the operation against the booby-trapped boats, according to the Saudi-led coalition, which also carried out air raids on the Yemeni cities of Sanaa and Hodeida overnight.

Iraqi lawmakers failed again on Saturday to elect a new president due to the lack of a quorum in parliament, keeping the country mired in political paralysis.

Parliament had issued a final list of 40 candidates for the post, a largely ceremonial role that by convention is reserved for a member of Iraq's Kurdish minority.

The contest pits Barham Saleh, the incumbent and a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), against Rebar Ahmed of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the PUK's rival.

Red Bull team chief Christian Horner on Friday backed the decision to continue with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix despite a rebel attack on a nearby oil depot, insisting: "F1 will not be bullied".

"The sport has to stand against this. No terrorism of this kind can be condoned. The sport must not be bullied in this way," said Horner.

Despite their many disagreements in last year's tense and dramatic world championship, Horner and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff were united that the show must go on.

Jordan's King Abdullah II hosted leaders from Egypt, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates on Friday for "consultative" talks, state media said.

The meeting with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi in the Red Sea port city of Aqaba was "consultative", according to state television.

An official source requesting anonymity told AFP that the "consultative brotherly meeting dealt with recent international and regional developments". The source did not elaborate.