Jordan has applied for a two-year term on the U.N. Security Council, the information minister said on Monday, after Saudi Arabia won a seat and then turned it down.

"Jordan has officially applied for a non-permanent seat on the U.N. security Council. The kingdom is interested in this seat and realizes its political and diplomatic responsibilities," Mohammad Momonai told Agence France Presse.

Some of the world's biggest broadcasters on Friday urged the U.N. Security Council to take greater action over the killing of journalists in conflict zones.

The organizations including the BBC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Japan's NHK said the dangers facing their reporters were making it difficult to provide accurate news from some corners of the world.

Israeli Home Front Minister Gilad Erdan on Thursday slammed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's intensive campaigning against an emerging nuclear deal with Iran.

"I was astounded to hear John Kerry's remarks about why the prime minister is criticizing the agreement being formulated in Geneva without waiting for it to be signed," Erdan told an Institute for National Security Studies conference in Tel Aviv.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned Wednesday that the conflict in Syria is having a serious impact on neighboring Lebanon, citing increased cross-border violence and broader threats to stability and security.

Ban said the spillover of the 2 1/2-year Syrian conflict has caused more than 800,000 Syrians to flee to Lebanon, straining the country's finances and increasing social pressures.

France said Monday world powers were close to a long-awaited agreement with Iran on its disputed nuclear program, despite failure to reach a deal at negotiations in Geneva that some blame on Paris.

"We are not far from an agreement with the Iranians but we are not there yet," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Europe 1 radio.

Jordan is expected to take up a U.N. Security Council seat that Saudi Arabia won and then rejected, diplomats said Thursday.

Envoys said Jordan had been reluctant to take up the Asia-Pacific seat on the 15-nation council but had been persuaded by the Saudis.

Turkish authorities have seized a large quantity of chemicals from a convoy trying to illegally enter the country from Syria, which "could be transformed into weapons", the army said Sunday.

The convoy of three vehicles refused to stop as it attempted to illegally cross the border on Saturday near the southeastern town Turkish town of Reyhanli, the army said in a statement.

Iran's foreign minister expressed hope Thursday that upcoming negotiations about the country's disputed nuclear program will lead to a quick understanding with world powers.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Iran would approach crunch nuclear talks in Geneva next week "with good faith" and "with determination to reach understanding and with hope to reach an understanding at an early stage".

International inspectors have placed Syria's entire declared stock of over 1,000 tonnes of chemical weapons and agents under tamper-proof seal, the world's chemical watchdog said Thursday.

"All stocks of chemical weapons and agents have been placed under seals that are impossible to break," Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) spokesman Christian Chartier told Agence France Presse, adding that the seals were "tamper proof".

Amid new tensions over Western Sahara, a U.N. envoy said Wednesday there was still no hope of convening face-to-face talks on the disputed territory between Morocco and pro-independence rebels.

Morocco, which occupies the territory, recalled its ambassador to Algiers as the U.N. Security Council held talks on Western Sahara. Algeria is a key backer of the Polisario Front independence movement.