Iran is increasingly using digital and surveillance technology and "state-sponsored vigilantism" to crush dissent after the "Women, Life, Freedom" protests in 2022, a UN investigation said Friday.

Tehran is making "concerted state efforts to stifle dissent, perpetuating a climate of fear and systematic impunity", the United Nations' Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said in a new report.

These involve "the increased use of technology and surveillance, including through state-sponsored vigilantism".

China urged an end to "illegal" sanctions on Iran as it hosted Iranian and Russian diplomats on Friday for talks Beijing hopes will restart long-stalled negotiations on Tehran's nuclear programme.

The United States withdrew from a landmark 2015 deal, which imposed curbs on Tehran's nuclear development in return for sanctions relief, during US President Donald Trump's first term.

Turkey's top diplomat travelled to Damascus on Thursday as Ankara said foreign fighters must be expelled from Syria, after an agreement spearheaded by the war-torn country's new authorities to disband armed groups.

Flanked by Turkey's defence minister and its spy chief, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan was paying a "working visit" to Syria, the ministry said in a statement, without further details.

Fidan was due to meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the Islamist HTS group that overthrew Bashar al-Assad in December, according to state-run TRT television.

Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa hailed the start of a "new history" for his country on Thursday, signing into force a constitutional declaration regulating its five-year transitional period and laying out rights for women and freedom of expression.

The declaration comes three months after Islamist-led rebels toppled Bashar al-Assad's repressive government, leading to calls for an inclusive new Syria that respects rights.

US President Donald Trump has been condemned by Jewish and Muslim groups for using the term "Palestinian" as a slur in an attack on the country's highest-ranking elected Jewish official.

In comments to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump said Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer had "become a Palestinian."

"He used to be Jewish. He's not Jewish anymore, he's a Palestinian," Trump said.

Schumer, a long-serving Democratic senator from New York, has resisted Republican pressure this week to back their stopgap plan to avoid a government shutdown.

An Iranian sports climber, widely praised in 2022 for competing without a hijab at the height of nationwide protests, has left the country, her brother and an Iranian official said.

Elnaz Rekabi gained global attention in October 2022 when she took part in championships in South Korea without wearing the headscarf required for women in the Islamic republic.

She returned home and largely vanished from public view, with some Persian-language media based outside Iran reporting she had been placed under house arrest and banned from competing abroad.

Defence Minister Israel Katz confirmed the Israeli Air Force conducted a strike in Damascus on Thursday, with the military saying it had hit a "command centre" of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group.

A war monitor reported one person killed, with Syrian state media saying the strike had targeted a building in the capital.

Islamic Jihad fought alongside Hamas against Israel in Gaza before a fragile truce began in January.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that such strikes would be carried out across the region against "whoever attacks us".

Iraq is exploring alternatives to Iranian gas imports, including options in the Gulf, a government official said, as it seeks to reduce dependence on its sanctions-hit neighbour.

The administration of US President Donald Trump announced at the weekend its decision to end a sanctions waiver that had allowed Iraq to buy electricity from Iran, though it has yet to bar gas imports.

Iran's gas and electricity supply accounts for a third of Iraq's energy needs.

China called on Thursday for a "diplomatic" resolution to the Iran nuclear issue as it prepared to host diplomats from Tehran and Moscow for talks.

The United States withdrew from a landmark deal, which had imposed curbs on Iran's nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief, during President Donald Trump's first term.

Tehran adhered to the 2015 deal for a year after Washington's withdrawal but then began rolling back its commitments.

Efforts to revive the pact have since faltered.

A United Nations investigation concluded Thursday that Israel carried out "genocidal acts" in Gaza through the destruction of its main IVF clinic, maternity facilities and other reproductive healthcare facilities.

The UN Commission of Inquiry said Israel had "intentionally attacked and destroyed" the Palestinian territory's main fertility centre, and had simultaneously imposed a siege and blocked aid including medication for ensuring safe pregnancies, deliveries and neonatal care.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted by calling the findings "false and absurd".