The world's transition to clean energy sources must be "just" and financed by the hydrocarbon trade, the climate change minister of oil-rich United Arab Emirates told AFP.

Mariam Almheiri was interviewed in France where a fierce heatwave set record temperatures as western Europe wilted under a scorching sun and wildfires that devoured forests.

Experts are blaming climate change and predict more frequent extreme weather to come.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pressed his case for a military offensive against Syria's Kurds at a summit in Tehran Tuesday, despite Iran's supreme leader warning against such a move.

The summit, hosted by Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi and also attended by Russia's President Vladimir Putin, was ostensibly aimed at ending more than 11 years of conflict in Syria, where Iran and Russia support the Damascus government and Turkey supports rebel forces against the regime.

When Moscow-installed authorities in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Melitopol began distributing Russian passports, mother-of-two Olesya Novitskaya did not hesitate.

"I think we will all live in Russia, and I need a Russian passport," the 31-year-old makeup artist said in central Melitopol, holding her youngest son in her arms.

She spoke to AFP during a closely supervised press tour organised by the Russian defence ministry.

Currently on maternity leave, Novitskaya had come to apply for a Russian passport with her two young sons.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday renewed his threat to "freeze" the NATO membership bids of both Sweden and Finland unless the military alliance complies with Ankara's conditions.

At a NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June, Erdogan called on the two countries to "do their part" in the fight against terrorism, and accused them of providing a haven for outlawed Kurdish militants.

A 400-year-old iconic mosque in Iran's central city of Isfahan listed as a UN World Heritage Site has been damaged during restoration work, officials said Monday.

The 17th century Shah Mosque, also known as the Royal Mosque, was built during the "golden age" of Isfahan, the capital during Safavid dynasty.

"Supervisors and restorers realised there was damage, especially in the upper part of the dome," said Alireza Izadi, head of the heritage for the city, according to state media.

After hearing Joe Biden identify Jerusalem as Israel's capital and concede a two-state solution seemed "far away", one Palestinian official gave a blunt assessment of the US president's visit to the region.

"It's like the Trump years with a smile," said the official, who requested anonymity.

Biden's predecessor Donald Trump was loathed among Palestinians over his unequivocal pro-Israeli policies.

With Israeli politics gridlocked, few thought that 79-year-old Biden could jumpstart peace talks which have been moribund since 2014.

With the war in Ukraine still raging, Russian President Vladimir Putin travels Tuesday to Tehran for talks with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts on the Syria conflict.

Russia, Turkey and Iran have in recent years met to discuss Syria as part of the so-called "Astana peace process" to end more than 11 years of conflict in the Arab country.

All three are involved in Syria, with Russia and Iran supporting the Damascus regime against its opponents, and Turkey backing rebels.

Iraq's oil wealth is rekindling tensions between federal authorities and the autonomous Kurdish region, in a row that could compromise the lifeline industry and keep investors away, analysts say.

The long-simmering dispute came to a head in February -- at a time of political deadlock in Baghdad -- when the federal supreme court ordered Kurdistan to hand over oil extracted from its territories to the federal authorities.

Police fired tear gas in Sudan's capital Khartoum Sunday against hundreds of anti-coup protesters who also called attention to increasingly deadly tribal clashes in the country's south.

The capital has been the scene of near-weekly protests since army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan launched a power grab in October last year that derailed a transition to civilian rule.

The coup saw key donors pull the plug on funding, exacerbating a long-running economic crisis and feeding into inter-communal unrest in remote parts of the country.

Iranian police have arrested several people for disturbing security after they protested the drying up of a lake once regarded as the Middle East's largest, official media said Sunday.

Lake Urmia, in the mountains of northwest Iran, began shrinking in 1995 due to a combination of prolonged drought, and the extraction of water for farming and dams, according to the UN Environment Programme.