The UN Security Council adopted a resolution Tuesday extending a system for cross-border aid to Syria by six months, the duration demanded by Russia while other members had sought a full year.

The measure received support from 12 of the Security Council's 15 members, including Russia, China, and the grouping's 10 non-permanent members.

Western nations had called for a year-long extension, arguing that six months was insufficient to properly plan the delivery of aid to war-ravaged Syria.

Ahead of Joe Biden's first visit to Jerusalem as US president, Washington's ambassador said his team will "pound tables" to press Israeli officials into making concessions to the Palestinians.

But ambassador Thomas Nides was talking about ensuring Palestinians have access to economic benefits such as 4G internet, not throwing American diplomatic muscle into reviving a peace process moribund since 2014.

Iraqi Kurd Haresh Talib says he struggles to get paid and his children's schooling is disrupted in his conflict-riddled country, so he wants to try to flee with his family to Europe -- again.

"There is no future here," says the 36-year-old from the autonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq's north.

Talib, his hair gelled back and beard neatly trimmed, lives on the first floor of a pastel yellow house with his wife, two sons and a pet bird in a well-kept neighbourhood of Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan's second-largest city.

Iran is planning to supply hundreds of drones with combat weapon capabilities to Russia for use in Ukraine, a top US official said Monday.

Jake Sullivan, the White House national security advisor, said the information received by the United States supported views that the Russian military is facing challenges sustaining its weaponry after significant losses in Ukraine.

"The Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), including weapons-capable UAVs, on an expedited timeline," Sullivan told reporters.

The UN Security Council has agreed to extend a vital system for cross-border aid to war-ravaged Syria by six months, the length of time wanted by Russia, diplomats told AFP Monday.

Western nations had demanded a year-long extension, but a vote by the 15 members on half that is expected either later in the day or Tuesday.

"Russia forced the hand of everyone. Either close the mechanism or only six months. We cannot let people die," one ambassador told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Iranian director Jafar Panahi, renowned for his gritty social commentary which has drawn the ire of his country's rulers, was arrested on Monday -- the third filmmaker to be held in less than a week.

Panahi, 62, was outlawed from making movies and leaving the country after supporting mass protests in 2009 and making a series of films that critiqued the state of modern Iran.

His fellow filmmakers Mohamad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad were arrested separately over events relating to a deadly building collapse in the city of Abadan which sparked angry protests.

Award-winning dissident Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi was arrested Monday, the third director to be detained in less than a week, the Mehr news agency said.

Panahi, 62, has won a slew of awards at international festivals for films that have critiqued modern Iran, including the top prize in Berlin for "Taxi" in 2015, and best screenplay at Cannes for his film "Three Faces" in 2018.

"Jafar Panahi has been arrested today when he went to the prosecutor's office to follow up on the situation of another film-maker, Mohammad Rasoulof," Mehr reported.

A Saudi dissident living in Lebanon was killed in the Beirut suburbs and two of his brothers arrested in connection with the incident, Lebanese police and a security source said Monday.

The victim was stabbed to death on Saturday in his home in a southern Beirut area known to be under the security control of Hezbollah, a Shiite organisation backed by Saudi arch foe Iran.

His brothers confessed to killing him "for family reasons", a statement by Lebanon's Internal Security Forces said.

Family members from three generations were huddled on the back of a pickup truck for what started as a joyful ride through the Syrian countryside for Abdulaziz al-Oqab and his relatives.

They were planning to sample the long-forgotten peacetime pleasure of a simple family picnic when a landmine brought a bloody end to their outing, and to the lives of 21 family members.

Oqab walked away with relatively light wounds that day in February 2019, but the blast killed his wife, two of his sons, four of his siblings, an uncle and other family members, and left others maimed.

Having branded Saudi Arabia a "pariah" over the murder of a dissident, US President Joe Biden is now readying to meet the country's leaders on a delicate visit to the Middle East.

Biden begins his tour in Israel on Wednesday, but all eyes are on his trip to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on Friday.

Air Force One will make an unprecedented direct flight between the Jewish state and the conservative Gulf kingdom that does not recognize its existence. Donald Trump had made a historic trip, in 2017, in the other direction.