AP PHOTOS: A Libyan town comes together to make a beloved Ramadan dish

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Every year during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a Libyan town comes together to prepare — and share — one of their all-time favorite dishes: bazin.

In Tajoura, just east of Libya ’s capital of Tripoli, it's the perfect food for iftar, the evening meal when Muslims break the dawn-to-dusk fasting of Ramadan.

Savory and rich, bazin is usually made of unleavened barley flour and served with a rich stew full of vegetables and — hopefully — mutton. If those aren't available, which they often haven't been in the past decade and a half due to Libya's violence and turmoil, a simple tomato sauce will do.

Preparing it is a joint effort, and Tajoura residents of all ages are eager to help with roles from making the bread, handing it out to the poor or donating ingredients to the community.

Typically, the men of Tajoura volunteer to make the bread in a makeshift communal kitchen, using long wooden sticks to stir the barley flour water in large pots to make the dough.

Others then knead the dough, shaping it into large clumps that look a bit like giant dumplings, to be baked or steamed. Once ready, other volunteers hand out bazin to a people lined up outside, who eagerly wait to take it home for iftar.

Ramadan is a time of intense prayers, charity and spirituality.

And in Tajoura, it's also time for bazin.

This photo gallery by Yousef Murad was curated by Amr Nabil in Cairo.

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Libyan volunteers serve free traditional unleavened Libyan bread made out of barley for passing fasting people in Tajoura, east of Libya's capital Tripoli, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Yousef Murad)

Libyan volunteers serve free traditional unleavened Libyan bread made out of barley for passing fasting people in Tajoura, east of Libya's capital Tripoli, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Yousef Murad)

A Libyan volunteer shows a just made traditional unleavened Libyan bread made out of barley in Tajoura, east of Libya's capital Tripoli, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Yousef Murad)

Volunteers serve traditional unleavened Libyan bread made out of barley in Tajoura, east of Libya's capital Tripoli, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Yousef Murad)

Volunteers serve traditional unleavened Libyan bread made out of barley in Tajoura, east of Libya's capital Tripoli, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Yousef Murad)

Volunteers prepare Bazin, traditional Libyan dough bread made of barley or whole wheat flour and often served with stew in Tajoura, east of Libya's capital Tripoli, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Yousef Murad)

Libyan volunteers serve traditional unleavened Libyan bread made out of barley in Tajoura, east of Libya's capital Tripoli, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Yousef Murad)

Libyan volunteers serve traditional unleavened Libyan bread made out of barley in Tajoura, east of Libya's capital Tripoli, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Yousef Murad)

Libyan volunteers prepare Bazin, traditional Libyan dough bread made of barley or whole wheat flour and often served with stew in Tajoura, east of Libya's capital Tripoli, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Yousef Murad)

Wheat to prepare Bazin, a traditional Libyan dough bread made of barley or whole wheat flour and often served with stew in Tajoura, east of Libya's capital Tripoli, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Yousef Murad)

A man serves tea as volunteers prepare Bazin, a traditional Libyan dough bread made of barley or whole wheat flour and often served with stew in Tajoura, east of Libya's capital Tripoli, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Yousef Murad)

Libyan volunteers mixes the products to make traditional unleavened Libyan bread made out of barley in Tajoura, east of Libya's capital Tripoli, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Yousef Murad)

CAIRO (AP) — Pakistan’s interior minister was in Tehran on Sunday in a fresh bid to restart negotiations between Iran and the U.S., as the American military said it shot down two more Iranian drones over the Strait of Hormuz that threatened international maritime traffic.

The latest action came as the U.S. administration presses Iran to make a deal to end the war in the Middle East, which has strained the global economy and threatened a hunger crisis in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries.

The heaviest fighting ended with a preliminary ceasefire on April 8, but the sides have not been able to agree on a long-term end to the war.

Fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah continued, meanwhile, despite last week's announcement that a U.S.-brokered ceasefire had been extended.

Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi is in Tehran to deliver a message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei from Pakistan's army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, according to Iranian state-run IRNA news agency.

Khamenei has not been seen in public since he was named the Islamic Republic’s ruler after his father was killed on the first day of the war on Feb. 28 when the U.S. and Israel lauched a bombardment campaign against Iran.

Naqvi met with Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni late Saturday, and held talks Sunday morning with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, according to official Iranian media.

There were no details on the contents of the message. Pakistani authorities have said Islamabad, with support from regional countries including Qatar, Turkey and Egypt, has been working to help bridge differences between the United States and Iran and encourage efforts aimed at reducing tensions and ensuring the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Meanwhile, the new ceasefire in Lebanon, which was announced during U.S-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon in Washington last week, did not appear to be holding.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah has rejected the U.S.-brokered deal and instead endorsed Iran’s demand that ending the war in Lebanon be part of the negotiations with the U.S.

Israel struck what it said were over 150 Hezbollah military sites over the weekend, including rocket launchers and command centers, across southern Lebanon.

Early Sunday, Israel identified at least five projectiles launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel, which were intercepted or fell in open areas. Hezbollah did not immediately claim to have fired projectiles at Israel. However, the militant group acknowledged it attacked Israeli troops in southern Lebanon.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in southern Lebanon on Saturday, the Israeli military said.

The fighting in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have seized large swaths of the south in its latest ground invasion, threatens efforts to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit point for oil and gas. Its closure has jolted the world economy.

Iran has demanded that any lasting truce extend to Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces elections later this year, wants to press ahead with Israel’s offensive until he considers Hezbollah no longer poses a threat.

Lebanon’s army commander, Gen. Rodolphe Haikal, headed to Pakistan Saturday at the invitation of Pakistan’s army chief. The Lebanese army gave no further details and did not say whether it is related to Pakistan’s mediation between Iran and the U.S.

The U.S. military said Saturday that it had shot down several Iranian missiles and drones launched toward the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf Arab allies, and struck some of the Islamic Republic’s coastal surveillance radar sites in response.

“The attack drones posed an immediate threat to regional maritime traffic,” U.S. Central Command said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said it had targeted the Ali Al Salem air base, which hosts U.S. forces in Kuwait, and the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

The U.S. military said there were no reports of harm to U.S. personnel.

Earlier in the month, Iranian drones heavily damaged a passenger terminal at Kuwait’s main airport, killing one person and wounding dozens.

The U.S. military has kept up its blockade on Iranian ports in response to Tehran’s grip on the strait, a crucial corridor for global oil and natural gas shipments.

Energy prices have spiked, posing political problems for U.S. President Donald Trump’s Republican Party ahead of midterm congressional elections in November.

Chehayeb reported from Beirut and Lidman from Tel Aviv, Israel.

A man walks past anti-U.S. graffiti painted on the wall of the British Embassy in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

People walk under a banner showing portraits of the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, left, and the slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)