Iraq's new Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, whose government was approved on Thursday, vowed to ensure that the state would have a monopoly over weapons, the INA state news agency said.

Israel and Lebanon opened a new round of peace talks in Washington on Thursday as their latest ceasefire -- considered to still be in place despite hundreds of deaths in Israeli strikes -- nears its end.

The two sides started discussions just after 9 am (1300 GMT) at the State Department and will meet again on Friday.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Thursday accused the United Arab Emirates of playing what he called an active role in the US-Israeli war against Iran.

"The UAE is an active partner in this aggression, and there is no doubt about it," Araghchi said while attending the BRICS summit in India. "It also became clear that they participated in these attacks and may have even acted directly against us."

Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Ammar reiterated Thursday his group's rejection of the direct talks, as Lebanon and Israel are to hold new peace talks in Washington starting Thursday.

Ammar said direct talks amount to "free concessions" to Israel.

From her home in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, Anna Sloutskin yearns to expand her country's borders and one day move to southern Lebanon. And she is not alone.

With fighting between Israel and Hezbollah displacing more than a million Lebanese, a far-right fringe of Israel's settler movement is turning its gaze northwards.

Israel's military said it launched strikes against Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon on Thursday, hours before U.S.-brokered talks between Lebanon and Israel were set to begin in Washington.

"The IDF has begun striking Hezbollah terror infrastructure sites in several areas in southern Lebanon," the military said after issuing evacuation warnings for a number of villages in south and east Lebanon.

More than 10,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed in Lebanon since a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, the head of the country's National Council for Scientific Research said.

"Since the current ceasefire... we have witnessed 5,386 housing units that were completely destroyed, and 5,246 housing units damaged," CRNS chief Chadi Abdallah told a news conference broadcast by local media.

Lebanon's health ministry said 22 people including eight children were killed on Wednesday as Israel intensified strikes on the country.

Israeli airstrikes struck seven vehicles in Lebanon — three of them on the main highway just south of Beirut — killing 12 people including a woman and her two children.

Lebanon and Israel are to hold new peace talks in Washington starting Thursday, as their latest ceasefire -- considered to still be in place despite hundreds of deaths in Israeli strikes -- nears its end.

Lebanon and Israel last met on April 23 at the White House, where U.S. President Donald Trump announced a three-week ceasefire extension and voiced optimism for a historic agreement.

The UAE on Wednesday branded 21 Lebanese people and organizations as "terrorists", ordering the freezing of their assets as it accused them of ties to Hezbollah, the official Emirati news agency reported.