Morocco's foreign minister has warned Europe against developing a "fortress" mentality to immigration from Africa, while promising his country is doing everything possible to control its borders.

Morocco, which nationals of many African states can visit without visas, has become a major gateway for sub-Saharan migrants into Europe, with 47,000 entering Spain from the north African coast in 2018, four times the number for the whole of last year.

Morocco's leading rights group on Thursday condemned what it termed the "regression of human rights" and a growing number of political detainees in the North African state.

Troops from Turkey and the United States launched joint patrols in the northern Syrian city of Manbij on Thursday, the Turkish defense minister said, part of a bid to ease tensions between the NATO allies.

The U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group said Thursday it was working to "de-escalate" fighting between Turkey and a Kurdish-led alliance battling the jihadists in Syria.

Israeli ministers said Thursday they want to construct a new apartment building for settlers in the flashpoint city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, in what would be a rare move.

Brazil's president-elect Jair Bolsonaro has told an Israeli newspaper he intends to defy the Palestinians and most of the world by moving his country's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Over seven million children face a serious threat of famine in Yemen and ending the country's war will not save all of them, the U.N. children's agency said.

Jihadists on Thursday killed four pro-regime fighters in Idlib province, the rebel stronghold where Russia and Turkey have agreed to set up a buffer zone, a monitor said.

Yemen's government said Thursday it was ready to re-start peace talks with Huthi rebels, amid growing international pressure to end the years-long conflict.

The Yemeni government said it welcomed "all efforts to restore peace" after the U.N. called for the warring parties to enter negotiations. 

The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday threw its weight behind planned talks on Western Sahara as it voted to extend for six months its decades-old mission in the disputed north African territory.