WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said that Washington and Moscow on Thursday agreed to reestablish high level military-to-military dialogue, following talks in Abu Dhabi, a move which could signal a move towards normalizing some ties between the United States and Russia.

The United States halted military-to-military communication with Moscow just before Russia invaded Ukraine. The conflict, which began in 2022, is the deadliest war in Europe since World War Two and the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War.

Iran and the United States are holding talks on Friday in Oman, with Tehran pushing to focus squarely on its nuclear programme, while Washington's demands go beyond that.

The two foes had held several rounds of Oman-mediated nuclear talks in 2025, but the Iran-Israel war, which saw the United States conduct strikes on Iranian nuclear sites, derailed diplomacy days before a meeting was due.

DUBLIN, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Ireland's top government lawyer has raised several "significant" legal and practical issues in long-awaited advice on whether planned curbs on trade with Israeli settlements should be extended to services, a junior minister said on Thursday.

Ireland has been preparing a law to curb trade with settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, facing pressure at home to widen the scope of the ban from goods to services, while Israel and the United States want the bill scrapped.

Famine is spreading in Sudan's western Darfur region, UN-backed experts warned on Thursday, as a grinding war between the army and paramilitary forces has left millions hungry, displaced and cut off from aid.

Since April 2023, the conflict between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands, displaced 11 million and triggered what the United Nations calls one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

By Tuvan Gumrukcu and Parisa Hafezi

ISTANBUL/ DUBAI, Feb 5 (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey is working hard to prevent U.S.-Iran tensions from tipping the Middle East into a new conflict, as the two adversaries signal that disagreement over Tehran’s missile arsenal threatens to torpedo a deal.

DOHA, Feb 5 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday that concerns about a further escalation in the conflict with Iran have characterised his talks during a trip to the Gulf region.

"In all my conversations yesterday and today, great concern has been expressed about a further escalation in the conflict with Iran," he said during a press conference in Doha.

He called on Iran to end what he called an aggression and enter into talks, saying Germany would do everything it can to de-escalate the situation and work towards stability in the region.

MOSCOW, Feb 5 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Thursday it did not want to waste time answering questions about unproven suggestions in Western media and by Poland's premier that late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein may have been some sort of Russian intelligence asset.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday that Warsaw would launch an investigation into what it said were possible links between Epstein and Russia's intelligence services, and into any potential impact on Poland.

Feb 5 (Reuters) - Delegations from the United States, Ukraine and Russia have agreed to exchange 314 prisoners, U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff said in a post on X on Thursday.

"Discussions will continue, with additional progress anticipated in the coming weeks," he said.

(Reporting by Shubham Kalia in BengaluruEditing by Bernadette Baum)

ANKARA, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will push for a speedy resumption of talks with the European Union to update their customs union during a visit to Turkey by the bloc's commissioner for enlargement, a Turkish Foreign Ministry source said on Thursday.

Turkey has been an official candidate to join the EU since 1999, but its accession has been frozen for years over issues ranging from human rights to democratic backsliding. The sides have in recent months shown signs of increased engagement and economic cooperation.

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, Feb 5 (Reuters) - U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk appealed for $400 million on Thursday to address mounting human rights needs in countries such as Sudan and Myanmar, after donor funding cuts drastically reduced the work of his office and left it in "survival mode".

The U.N. office is appealing for $100 million less than last year, after a significant scale back of its work in some areas due to a fall in contributions from countries including the U.S. and Europe.