US mediator Jared Kushner and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks Monday on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire, as Washington intensified its efforts to ensure the fragile truce endures.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, said Israel would enforce the ceasefire in Gaza as well as one in Lebanon with an "iron fist".

The truce in Gaza, in effect for a month now, has largely halted the war that erupted after Hamas's surprise attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

During the ongoing first stage, a series of prisoner and hostage exchanges took place over recent weeks.

By Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD (Reuters) -Lukoil has declared force majeure at Iraq's giant West Qurna-2 oilfield, four sources with knowledge of the matter said on Monday, after Western sanctions on the Russian oil major hampered its operations.

Lukoil did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The United States and Britain imposed sanctions on Lukoil - Russia's second-largest oil company - last month. And Iraq has since halted all cash and crude payments to the company, three of the sources said.

By Maha El Dahan and Jana Choukeir

DUBAI (Reuters) -The United Arab Emirates does not yet see a clear framework for the proposed international stability force in Gaza and, under the current circumstances, will not take part, a senior Emirati official said on Monday.

Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said Abu Dhabi would continue to support political efforts toward peace and remain a leading provider of humanitarian aid.

"The region remains fragile, yet there is reason for cautious optimism", he told the Abu Dhabi Strategic Debate.

By Timour Azhari

DAMASCUS (Reuters) -Syria has foiled two separate Islamic State plots to assassinate President Ahmed al-Sharaa, two senior officials said, adding a personal dimension to the leader's plans to join a U.S.-led coalition to fight the militant group that he has long battled.

The sources, a senior Syrian security official and a senior Middle Eastern official, said the plots on Sharaa's life were foiled over the last few months and underlined the direct threat he faces as he tries to consolidate power in a country ruined by 14 years of civil war.

By Ebru Tuncay and Can Sezer

ISTANBUL (Reuters) -A team from the international crime watchdog FATF will evaluate Turkey this month after removing it from its "grey list" last year for progress made in fighting money laundering and the funding of terrorist activity, five sources said.

Turkey has to show it is meeting commitments or it risks returning to the grey list of countries that require special scrutiny, which would dent its improving financial credentials.

By Maya Gebeily and Maayan Lubell

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel is pressing Lebanon's army to be more aggressive in disarming the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah by searching private homes in the south for weaponry, three Lebanese security officials and two Israeli officials have said.

The demand has emerged in recent weeks and been rejected by Lebanon's military leadership, who fear it would ignite civil strife and derail a disarmament strategy seen by the army as cautious but effective, the Lebanese security officials told Reuters.

DUBAI (Reuters) -Inspectors of the U.N. nuclear watchdog IAEA visited Iranian nuclear sites last week, Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday, according to state media, a week after the IAEA urged Iran to "seriously improve" cooperation.

The IAEA has carried out about a dozen inspections in Iran since hostilities with Israel in June, but last week highlighted it had not been given access to nuclear facilities such as Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, which were bombed by the United States.

BAMAKO (Reuters) -The African Union has called for an urgent international response, including intelligence-sharing, to address worsening security conditions in Mali, where insurgents are imposing a fuel blockade and kidnapping foreigners.

An Al Qaeda-linked jihadist group active in West Africa's Sahel region has blocked fuel imports since September, attacking convoys of tankers and creating a shortage that forced schools and businesses to shut.

Egyptians head to the polls on Monday to elect a new parliament, which critics say will only further cement President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's grip on power.

The opening of polling stations at 9:00 am (0700 GMT) marks the start of a weeks-long process to fill 568 of the 596 seats in the lower house, with some provinces not voting for another two weeks.

The remaining 28 lawmakers will be appointed directly by Sisi, the former army chief who seized power after ousting late Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

A Saudi doctor went on trial in Germany Monday accused of driving an SUV through a Christmas market, killing six people and wounding more than 300.

Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen, a 51-year-old psychiatrist, was arrested next to the battered rental vehicle after the attack on December 20, 2024 in the eastern city of Magdeburg.

Prosecutor Matthias Boettcher told the court that the accused wanted "to kill a large number of people" by driving the two-tonne vehicle "deliberately into a mass of pedestrians".

A nine-year-old boy and five women aged between 45 and 75 were killed.