Plans to drill for oil in the protected Mesopotamian Marshes of southern Iraq have galvanised villagers and activists determined to save the mythical wetlands already battered by years of drought.

"We will never accept it," marshes activist Murtada al-Janubi told a meeting, seeking to reassure anxious residents gathered in a traditional hall made of woven reeds from the wetlands, to discuss the government's plans for the UNESCO-listed area that is their home.

Everyone nodded in approval.

For weeks, Ziad Abu al-Dahab has been training for gold at an equestrian tournament near Damascus -- in a sport once dominated by Syria's Assad family and their inner circle.

"Results used to be decided in advance, always favouring those close to the government," the 25-year-old rider said.

"My greatest ambition was to reach third place, but today, I can aim for first and do well with my new horse."

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday his country would keep enriching uranium "with or without a deal" with world powers, despite ongoing negotiations over its nuclear programme.

"If the US is interested in ensuring that Iran will not have nuclear weapons, a deal is within reach, and we are ready for a serious conversation to achieve a solution that will forever ensure that outcome," Araghchi posted on X.

"Enrichment in Iran, however, will continue with or without a deal," he said.

Italian parliamentarians protested on Sunday in front of Egypt's Rafah border crossing with Gaza, calling for aid access and an end to the war in the devastated Palestinian territory.

"Europe is not doing enough, nothing to stop the massacre," Cecilia Strada, an Italian member of the European parliament, told AFP.

The group -- including 11 members of the Italian parliament, three MEPs and representatives of NGOs -- held signs reading "Stop genocide now", "End illegal occupation" and "Stop arming Israel".

Israel will allow a "basic amount" of food into the Gaza Strip, the prime minister's office said Sunday, after facing mounting pressure to lift a total blockade imposed more than two months ago.

The announcement came hours after the military said it had begun "extensive ground operations" in a newly intensified campaign in Gaza, and as Israel and Hamas engaged in indirect talks on a deal to potentially halt the fighting.

Hasan Hadi, the first filmmaker from Iraq to be selected for the prestigious Cannes Festival, said that economic embargoes like those imposed in his childhood under Saddam Hussein do not work.

"Sanctions empower dictators," he told AFP, claiming that they concentrate scant resources in their hands and only make them "more brutal".

"In the history of the world, there was no one time when they (imposed) sanctions and the president couldn't eat."

Syria on Saturday announced the formation of a national commission for missing persons and another for transitional justice, more than five months after the ouster of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

Syria's new authorities have pledged justice for victims of atrocities committed under Assad's rule, and a five-year transitional constitution signed in March provided for the formation of a transitional justice commission.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators clashed with riot police in Basel as the Swiss city hosted the Eurovision Song Contest Saturday, AFP journalists at the scene witnessed.

Protesters demonstrating against Israel's participation in the contest while it ramps up its war in Gaza clashed briefly with police in the centre of the city shortly before Israel's Eurovision entrant Yuval Raphael took to the stage at the St. Jakobshalle venue across town.

Three Iranian men appeared in a London court Saturday charged with spying for Iran's intelligence services, as the UK interior ministry said they had arrived "by irregular means including small boats".

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper vowed to boost national security powers following the charges, which come amid heightened concerns about Iranian activities on UK soil.

In October, the head of Britain's MI5 domestic intelligence service revealed that since 2022 the UK had uncovered 20 Iran-backed plots posing "potentially lethal threats".

Israel's military said it killed a local Hezbollah commander on Saturday in south Lebanon, where authorities reported one dead in the fourth Israeli strike within days despite a November ceasefire.

Lebanon's health ministry said one person was killed in an Israeli "drone strike" on a vehicle in south Lebanon's Tyre district.

An AFP correspondent saw the charred wreckage of a vehicle in Abu al-Aswad, an area around 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Israeli border.