An Emirati diplomat earlier identified by Tehran as carrying a letter from U.S. President Donald Trump seeking to jump-start talks over Iran's rapidly advancing nuclear program met Wednesday with Iran's foreign minister in the Iranian capital.

It is unclear how Iran will react to the letter, which Trump revealed during a television interview last week. Its intended recipient, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said he's not interested in talks with a "bullying government."

A letter U.S. President Donald Trump wrote to Iran's supreme leader in an attempt to jump-start talks over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program has arrived in the Iranian capital.

While the text of the letter hasn't been published, its arrival comes as Trump has levied new sanctions on Iran as part of his "maximum pressure" campaign targeting the country. He also suggested military action against Iran remained a possibility, while emphasizing he still believed a new deal could be reached.

A delegation of Syrian Druze clerics is planning to visit a pilgrimage site in Israel on Friday for the first time since Israel's creation in 1948, a source close to the group said.

"A delegation of dozens of Druze clerics will visit Israel on Friday," the source said, adding that it follows an invitation from the Druze community in Israel.

Israel's military carried out an airstrike Thursday on a residential building on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus that it said was a command center of the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The military alleged that the command center has been used to direct attacks against Israel and vowed to "respond forcefully" to the presence of Palestinian militant groups inside Syria.

Kuwait has released a group of American prisoners, including veterans and military contractors jailed for years on drug-related charges, in a move seen as a gesture of goodwill between two allies, a representative for the detainees told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The release follows a recent visit to the region by Adam Boehler, the Trump administration's top hostage envoy, and comes amid a continued U.S. government push to bring home American citizens jailed in foreign countries.

After Syria's longtime autocratic ruler was toppled late last year, the man who led rebel groups to victory immediately faced a new challenge: unifying the country after more than a decade of civil war.

The peril and promise of Syria under interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa — the former leader of an Islamist insurgent group — were on dramatic display over the past week. After days of deadly sectarian violence, a diplomatic triumph united a powerful force in the country's northeast with the new national army.

United Nations-backed human rights experts on Thursday accused Israel of "the systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other gender-based violence" in its war on Gaza.

The allegations came in one of the most extensive reports of its kind on the issue.

Atletico has to overcome a one-goal deficit to eliminate bitter rival Real in the second leg of the Champions League last 16 tie on Wednesday to maintain a chance of capturing the European trophy it has never won.

Its city rival and record 15-time European champion won the first leg 2-1 with a crucial goal from Brahim Diaz to continue dominance of the Madrid derby on Europe's biggest stage.

Will this finally be the year for Paris Saint-Germain?

The year when more than a decade of spending lavishly on players can at last bring the Qatari-backed French club its first Champions League title?

Paris has spoken, and fashion's final authority has laid down the law: This coming fall, it's all about power shoulders, enveloping outerwear and a color palette that runs from somber to surreal.

If Milan softened up with romance and New York leaned into Y2K grunge, Paris countered with sartorial surety — a wardrobe built for the sharp, the serious, and the spectacular. Coats are enormous, tailoring is back and drama is dialed up on every front.