US-Israel-Iran War LIVE | 50 killed, More Than 300 Wounded In Israeli Strikes In Lebanon, Say Health Officials

Turkey's Foreign Minister said Tuesday that the United States should limit its attacks on Iran to degrading its military capabilities, as forcing regime change would cause "risks" for the region, reports AFP.

Attacking military targets and regime change were the two main options for the war, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in a television interview. "Moving toward the second (regime change) means introducing very different scenarios and risks for the region," he declared.

The death toll over the past two days in Lebanon has risen to 50, with 335 wounded, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Tuesday evening, reports AP.

On Monday, Hezbollah launched missiles toward Israel for the first time in more than a year, and Israel responded by bombarding southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut with strikes. No casualties have been reported from the Hezbollah attacks in Israel.

It is not clear how many of those killed in Lebanon were civilians, but the health ministry said earlier Tuesday that they included seven children. Officials with Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group were also killed.

Munitions debris fell late Tuesday in the Tel Aviv area, where a woman suffered mild shrapnel injuries, police said, after Iran launched two waves of missiles toward Israel within 30 minutes, reports AFP.

"A short time ago, reports were received by the Israel police regarding the fall of munition debris in the Tel Aviv District. Police officers and bomb disposal experts are operating to secure and isolate the affected areas," the force said in a statement reporting the first wave of missiles.

Minutes later, the military reported a second wave of missile launches from Iran, which were followed by blasts, AFP journalists reported.

Hezbollah said it targeted northern Israel's Haifa naval base on Tuesday, its 12th attack of the day as Israel continued to strike Lebanon, including Beirut's southern suburbs, reports AFP.

In a statement, the Iran-backed group said that "in response to the criminal Israeli aggression that struck dozens of Lebanese cities and towns, including Beirut's southern suburbs", it targeted the base with "a barrage of high-quality missiles" at 8:00 pm local time.

The Israeli military had said shortly after 8:00 pm that several incoming projectiles were detected, and most were shot down.

An Iranian ballistic missile hit the United States' military base at Al-Udeid on Tuesday, Qatar's defence ministry said, as Tehran struck targets across the Gulf in retaliation for US-Israeli attacks, reports AFP.

The ministry said Qatar was targeted by two missiles, adding: "Air defence systems successfully intercepted one of the missiles, while the second missile struck Al-Udeid Qatari Base without causing any casualties."

The United Arab Emirates said Tuesday on X that it retains the right to self-defence, insisting that the Gulf monarchy is not part of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran and that it hasn’t authorised the use of its territories for attacks against Iran, reports AP. The UAE Defence Ministry also released a breakdown of its missile and drone interceptions. It said Iranian drones struck within its territory 57 times out of more than 800 detected, while only one of 186 ballistic missiles managed to hit. All eight Iranian cruise missiles were intercepted, the ministry said. It was not possible to independently very those figures.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said he ordered the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to move from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean, reports AP. He said it will be escorted by its air wing and frigates, reports AP. In a pre-recorded speech on French TV, Macron added that Rafale fighter jets, air-defense systems, and airborne radar systems have been deployed over the past few hours in the Middle East.

The Israeli military said Tuesday that its strikes had disabled around 300 missile launchers in Iran since the United States and Israel launched a joint attack on the Islamic republic over the weekend, reports AFP. "Since the start of Operation 'Roaring Lion', the Israeli Air Force has dismantled approximately 300 Iranian missile launchers. This is the result of more than 1,600 sorties and a systematic, around-the-clock effort to locate and target launchers and missile stockpiles in order to reduce fire toward the Israeli home front," the army said in a statement.

Iran's slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will be buried in the holy city of Mashhad, reports AFP, citing the Fars news agency of Iran. Khamenei, who led the country for 36 years, was killed at 86 during a wave of US-Israeli attacks on Saturday.

He was originally from Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city, where his father is buried at the Imam Reza shrine. Before the burial, a "large farewell ceremony" will be held in Tehran, the Revolutionary Guards said on their Telegram account. No date for the burial was disclosed. After Khamenei's death, power was entrusted to a three-man interim council until the Assembly of Experts elects his successor.

Dozens of Venezuelan government supporters on Tuesday marched in the capital in solidarity with Iran and mourning Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the war, reports AP.

Demonstrators wore T-shirts with the photo of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom the U.S. military captured from the capital Caracas in a stunning operation two months ago.

Two women at the head of the demonstration carried photos of Khamenei and of late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who orchestrated Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution and ruled as supreme leader for a decade.

“We are here to give our support to the Iranian diplomatic representation in Caracas,” Yoser Quijada, an engineer, said. “We are here with our presence telling them that the people of Venezuela, the heart of the Venezuelan people, are together with the heart of the Iranian people.”

The Israeli military announced on Tuesday that it struck an underground nuclear site in Iran where it said scientists were "covertly" developing a key component for nuclear weapons, reports AFP.

"IDF intelligence continued to follow the scientists' activities and located their new location at this site in a manner that enabled a precise strike on the covert underground compound," the military said, displaying a map showing the facility on the eastern outskirts of Tehran.

"In the site, a group of nuclear scientists operated covertly to develop a key component for nuclear weapons," it said, adding the scientists had been working at the underground location, identified as "Minzadehei," after Israel struck several Iranian nuclear sites during the previous war in June.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that the United States and Israel's military operations in Iran were conducted "outside international law", but placed primary blame on the Islamic republic, reports AFP.

"The United States of America and Israel decided to launch military operations, conducted outside international law, which we cannot approve of," said Macron.

But "the Islamic Republic of Iran bears primary responsibility for this situation," Macron added, citing their "dangerous" nuclear programme, support for regional proxies, and orders to shoot "its own people" during protests in January.

A drone attack caused a fire near the US consulate in Dubai on Tuesday, a government statement said, a day after the US embassy in Riyadh was hit by an Iranian strike, reports AFP.

"Dubai authorities have confirmed that a fire resulting from a drone-related incident near the US Consulate has been successfully contained," the official Dubai Media Office posted on X.

Seven children have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon over the past two days, Lebanon’s health ministry said Tuesday, reports AP. In total, 40 people have been killed in Lebanon — including a Palestinian militant leader and a Hezbollah intelligence official — and 246 wounded in the new escalation between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

On Monday, Hezbollah launched missiles toward Israel for the first time in more than a year, and Israel responded by bombarding southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut with strikes. No casualties have been reported from the Hezbollah attacks in Israel.

Iranian state media has reported that at least 165 people were killed and dozens of others were wounded Saturday by what Iran says was an airstrike on a girls' school in the country’s south, reports AP.

The Israeli military said it was not aware of strikes in the area, and the U.S. military said it was looking into the strikes. Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Tuesday that the “devastating” airstrike may amount to war crimes if it is found to have targeted civilians or been carried out indiscriminately in violation of international law.

“Children, little girls, in the middle of the school day, at the beginning of the school day, being killed in this manner, backpacks with blood stains on them,” said Shamdasani. The U.N. human rights chief called for an investigation into the airstrike

Daoud Alizadeh, the acting commander of the Lebanon Corps in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, was killed on Tuesday in an airstrike in Tehran, the Israeli military said in a statement, reports AP.

The Quds Force works with Iran’s allied militant groups in the region, including Hezbollah. The army said the Lebanon Corps “supports Hezbollah force-building and functions as the connection between senior IRGC personnel and Hezbollah leadership.” It said Alizadeh replaced the Lebanon Corps’ previous commander, Hassan Mahdavi, killed in an earlier Israeli strike.

Iran is ready for a long war against the United States and Israel and has so far not used its most advanced weapons, its defence ministry said Tuesday, reports AFP.

"We have the capacity to resist and to continue an offensive defence longer than what (the enemy) has planned for this imposed war," ministry spokesman Reza Talaei-Nik was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. "We do not intend to deploy all our advanced weapons and equipment in the first days," he added.

The U.S. president told reporters that ‘someone from within’ Iranian regime might be best choice to take power once the U.S.-Israel military campaign is completed, reports AP.

In an exchange in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince of Iran’s last shah, is not someone that his administration has considered in depth to take over leadership in Iran.

“He looks like a very nice person, but it would seem to me that somebody that’s there that’s currently popular, if there’s such a person ... we have people like that,” Trump said.

Trump noted that “some people like” Pahlavi but that he was not someone the administration had thought about too much as Iran’s next ruler.

Several projectiles were fired from Lebanon towards Israel on Tuesday, but a majority of them were intercepted, the military said, as Israel vowed to attack the Lebanese group Hezbollah until it was disarmed, reports AFP.

"Several projectiles that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory were identified. Majority of the projectiles were intercepted, and an additional projectile fell in an open area," said a military statement, which specified that sirens had sounded in northern and central Israel.

Loud bangs were heard Tuesday evening in Erbil, the capital of Iraq's northern Kurdistan region, which hosts US bases, AFP journalists said.

Explosions were heard mostly near Erbil airport, which hosts US-led coalition troops, an AFP journalist said. Since the start of the US-Israel campaign against Iran, drones have repeatedly been intercepted over Erbil, which is also home to a major US consulate complex.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that two waves of US-Israeli attacks on Iran had killed figures he had eyed as potential new leaders, reports AFP.

"Most of the people we had in mind are dead," Trump said as he met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House. "Now we have another group. They may be dead also, based on reports"

US-Israeli strikes caused damage at an airport in Bushehr, a port city in southern Iran that also hosts a nuclear power plant, the Mehr news agency reported on Tuesday, AFP reports.

"Following an enemy attack, a projectile struck an Airbus aircraft... this plane is completely damaged," the agency said. "The shockwave (from the strike) caused damage to the airport terminal," it added, noting a second aircraft had also been hit.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz voiced support Tuesday for the US-Israeli war on Iran but hoped it would end soon, saying it was hurting the global economy, reports AFP.

"This is, of course, damaging our economies. This is true for the oil prices, and this is true for the gas prices as well. So that's the reason why we all hope that this war will come to an end as soon as possible," Merz told reporters as he met US President Donald Trump at the White House.

Ahead of a briefing by Trump administration officials to Congress, senior House Democrats are questioning what the costs of the Iran strikes will be and what impact they will have on the U.S. stockpile of munitions.

“The American people are entitled to clear answers, including why this conflict began, what objectives justify continued military engagement, and what guardrails are in place to prevent a broader or protracted regional war,” said the five Democrats, who hold top positions on committees overseeing national security, in a letter to the Trump administration. Lawmakers will receive a briefing later Tuesday as Trump tries to win over support for his campaign.

US President Donald Trump claimed that oil and gas prices were going to rise as the U.S. remains engaged in the ongoing Middle East conflict — yet argued that prices would drop once the war ends.

“We have a little high oil prices for a little while, but as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, I believe, lower than even before,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

The average price for a gallon of gasoline jumped 11 cents overnight Tuesday to about $3.11 in the United States, according to the American Automobile Association.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he was upset with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has not joined the US-Israeli attack on Iran but did let US forces use UK bases.

"I'm not happy with the UK," Trump said as he met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House.

"It's taken three, four days for us to work out where we can land," Trump said. "This is not Winston Churchill that we're dealing with."

He also threatened to cut off trade with Spain, whose left-wing government refused to let US planes use its bases to attack Iran and objected to raising defence funding as part of NATO.

"Spain has been terrible. We're going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don't want anything to do with Spain," he said.

EU and Gulf State foreign ministers are set to hold talks by videolink on Thursday on the war in the Middle East, officials told AFP Tuesday.

The virtual meeting, convened by EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas, come as violence has spread across the region after the United States and Israel attacked Iran.

US President Donald Trump claimed Tuesday that Iran was going to attack before he did, walking back top diplomat Marco Rubio's assertion that Israel triggered the war.

"I think they were going to attack first, and I didn't want that to happen. So, if anything, I might have forced Israel's hand," Trump told reporters as he met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House.

He also said that "most new Iranian leaders eyed by the US are dead", adding that a worst-case scenario in his attack on Iran would be a new leader like the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"I guess the worst case would be, we do this, and then somebody takes over who's as bad as the previous person, right?" he told reporters as he met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

"That could happen. We don't want that to happen."

Russian top diplomat Sergei Lavrov urged de-escalation in the Middle East war in a call with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday, Moscow's Foreign Ministry said.

Lavrov "confirmed a fundamental position in favour of de-escalating the situation and rejecting the use of force," the ministry said.

It said Lavrov also stressed the need to "ensure the safety of the civilian population and civil infrastructure in all countries of the region."

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said that the IAEA inspectors have not found evidence of a coordinated Iranian programme to build nuclear weapons despite Israeli and US claims.

Grossi told NBC News that the agency had not identified “elements of a systematic and structured programme to manufacture nuclear weapons” in Iran.

At the same time, he confirmed that Tehran has enriched uranium to 60 per cent purity – a level far beyond civilian energy needs. Grossi said such enrichment is something “only countries with nuclear weapons have”.

He stressed that inspectors could not conclude Iran intends to build a bomb, but said the stockpiling raised serious questions.

This enrichment, he said, was “the source of the concerns we had”, and there was “no clear objective” for accumulating material at that level.

“The centrifuges were spinning constantly and producing more and more of that material,” he said, adding that theoretically this would have been “enough to produce more than 10 nuclear warheads. But do they have them? No.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Tuesday the UK was dispatching "helicopters with counter drone capabilities" and the warship HMS Dragon to Cyprus as Britain continues "defensive operations" in the region.

"The UK is fully committed to the security of Cyprus and British military personnel based there," he said on X.

"I've just spoken with the President of Cyprus to let him know that we are sending helicopters with counter-drone capabilities and HMS Dragon is to be deployed to the region," Starmer added, noting London "will always act in the interest of the UK and our allies".

In a press release, the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation stated that it is "continuously monitoring the evolving airspace situation in parts of West Asia and its impact on international flight operations. To date, 1,221 flights by Indian carriers and 388 flights by foreign carriers have been cancelled due to the ongoing situation."

The release further stated that Indian carriers have undertaken calibrated adjustments to their schedules, with long-haul and ultra-long-haul operations being progressively resumed through alternative routings that avoid restricted airspace.

Special arrangements are being made to facilitate the movement of stranded passengers, with airlines deploying additional capacity where required and coordinating closely with foreign aviation authorities and Indian missions abroad to ensure safe and orderly passenger movement. A total of 24 flights are being operated by Indian carriers today. In addition, Emirates and Etihad have operated 9 flights from the Gulf in the last 24 hours.

Indian carriers are further planning 58 flights on 4th March, including 30 by IndiGo and 23 by Air India and Air India Express.

Foreign carriers operating between India and the Gulf region are also undertaking limited operations, subject to operational and airspace considerations.

Stating that "Passenger safety remains paramount," the release also said that all airlines have been advised to maintain transparent communication with passengers and ensure adherence to regulatory requirements concerning refunds, rescheduling, and passenger assistance, and the ministry is also closely monitoring airfares to ensure that there is no undue surge in ticket prices during this period.

Passengers have been advised to check the latest flight status directly with their respective airlines before proceeding to the airport and to rely only on official sources for updates.

The United States embassy in Beirut said Tuesday it will remain closed until further notice, as Israel continued its strikes on Lebanon in retaliation for Hezbollah's rocket launches.

"Due to ongoing regional tensions, US Embassy Beirut will be closed until further notice," the embassy said on X on Tuesday, a day after it renewed its call for citizens to leave Lebanon immediately.

An Islamic Revolutionary Guard general warned Tuesday that continued US-Israeli attacks would see Iran conduct reprisals against "all economic centres" in the Middle East.

"We are saying to the enemy that if it decides to hit our main centres, we will hit all economic centres in the region," said Ebrahim Jabbari.

"We have closed the Strait of Hormuz. Currently, the price of oil is above $80 and will soon reach $200," he was quoted as saying by Iranian news agency ISNA, as Brent crude climbed above $85 for the first time since July 2024.

Israel struck a headquarters belonging to the Islamist group Jamaa Islamiya, an ally of Hamas and Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon on Tuesday, state media reported.

"The Israeli enemy carried out an air raid a short while ago, targeting a headquarters of the Jamaa Islamiya" in the coastal city, state media said.

The group had previously been the target of Israeli strikes in Lebanon after claiming responsibility for rocket launches towards Israel during the war between Israel and Hezbollah that began in October 2023.

The European Union has begun helping member countries Italy, Austria and Slovakia repatriate their citizens stranded due to the war in the Middle East, the bloc's crisis management chief told AFP Tuesday.

Commissioner Hadja Lahbib said the three countries were the first so far to ask Brussels to assist in funding flights from the region.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel was continuing to pound Iran and vowed to hit Hezbollah with increasing force as the war in the Middle East raged for a fourth day.

"We continue to strike Iran with force. Our pilots are over the skies of Iran and Tehran, and also over the skies of Lebanon. Hezbollah made a very big mistake when it attacked us. We have already responded forcefully, and we will respond with even greater force," Netanyahu said at an air force base in central Israel, according to a statement from his office.

Israel's military said Tuesday its air force had struck industrial sites "throughout Iran" that were used to produce weapons including ballistic missiles, on the fourth day of a joint US-Israel attack on the Islamic republic.

"During strikes conducted throughout Iran, the IDF (military) targeted industrial sites used by the Iranian regime to produce weapons, particularly ballistic missiles," the military said in a statement.

Wall Street stocks tumbled early Tuesday, joining a global sell-off as markets worry about a long-running Middle East war that boosts oil prices and inflation.

All three major indices were firmly lower a few minutes into trading, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 1.7 per cent to 48,066.36.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 1.7 per cent to 6,767.35, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slid 2.0 per cent to 22,305.35.

Israeli and US strikes on Tuesday hit the building of a body tasked with electing Iran's new supreme leader, local media reported.

Former leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed during a wave of US-Israeli attacks on Saturday.

"The American-Zionist criminals attacked the Assembly of Experts building in Qom," south of Tehran, according to the Tasnim news agency.

The assembly is tasked with appointing, supervising, and potentially dismissing the supreme leader.

Local media showed footage of the building severely damaged in the strikes.

There was no information on any potential casualties.

The Mehr news agency reported that the building was no longer being used for meetings.

Tasnim reported that strikes had already targeted the main headquarters of the Assembly of Experts in Tehran on Monday.

Iran declared on Sunday the start of a transition process after confirming Khamenei's death.

The plans include the formation of an interim leadership council, including the president, the head of the judiciary and a jurist from the Guardian Council, the body that oversees legislation and vets electoral candidates.

Also playing a central role is Iran's top security chief, Ali Larijani.

The interim leadership council will lead the country while a permanent successor is found for the supreme leader.

The Israeli air force launched a new wave of strikes in Tehran on Tuesday, the military said, marking the fourth day of its campaign against the Islamic republic.

"The military has launched a ninth wave of strikes in Tehran. The Air Force has now begun a large scale wave of strikes targeting the Iranian terror regime's infrastructure in Tehran," the military said in a statement.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Israeli counterpart that Beijing was opposed to military strikes on Iran in a phone call on Tuesday, state media reported.

The war in the Middle East started over the weekend with US and Israeli strikes that killed the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and has since spread across the wider region.

Beijing, a close partner of Tehran, has called for a ceasefire and condemned Khamenei's killing as a "serious violation".

Speaking to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, Wang stayed clear of outright condemnation and said China advocated resolving issues through "dialogue and consultation", according to state news agency Xinhua.

"The recent Iran-US negotiations were making obvious progress... Regrettably, this process has been interrupted by gunfire," Wang said.

Reiterating Beijing's opposition to the US-Israeli military strikes, Wang said: "Force cannot truly solve problems -- instead, it will only bring new problems and severe after-effects."

"China calls for an immediate halt to military operations to prevent the conflict from further spreading and getting out of control," he added.

Israel's Magen David Adom emergency services said they were treating seven people with injuries following the latest salvo of missiles fired from Iran.

"At three scenes in central Israel, MDA paramedics and EMTs are providing medical treatment to 7 injured people, including: a woman around 40 years old in moderate condition with blast injuries, and 6 additional casualties in mild condition suffering from glass shrapnel and blast-related injuries," an MDA statement said.

Israeli police said officers were operating at several sites in the central and Tel Aviv districts where shrapnel had fallen.

The US embassy in Riyadh on Tuesday warned of an imminent attack in the eastern Saudi city of Dhahran, home to much of the kingdom's energy installations along the Gulf coast.

"There is a threat of imminent missile and UAV attacks over Dhahran. Do not come to the U.S. Consulate", the embassy wrote on its official X account.

The warning came just hours after the US mission in Riyadh was attacked by two drones that sparked a small fire on the embassy grounds, as Iran pressed on with retaliatory strikes across the Gulf.

On Monday, the massive Ras Tanura refinery on Saudi Arabia's Gulf coast went into partial shutdown after a strike by drones.

The complex run by the Saudi state oil giant Aramco is home to one of the largest refineries in the entire Middle East and a cornerstone of the kingdom's energy sector.

Saudi Arabia is the world's biggest oil exporter, with most of its oil fields and petroleum infrastructure located along its eastern coast, across the Gulf from Iran.

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday that it was too late for talks with Iran even though Tehran wants them.

"Their air defense, Air Force, Navy, and Leadership is gone. They want to talk. I said 'Too Late!'" Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, two days after saying he had agreed to talks, amid the joint Israeli-US bombardment of Iran.

Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Tuesday urged countries to cut their ties with Iran during a virtual meeting with around 60 envoys stationed in Israel, as it pressed its military campaign against the Islamic Republic.

"The foreign minister told the ambassadors that following the Iranian regime's attacks on all its neighbours and the massacre of its own people, countries around the world must cut off their relations with it," a statement issued by Saar's office said, without specifying whether the 60 envoys' countries had ties with Iran in the first place.

Hezbollah announced it targeted a military facility in Israel in its fourth attack on Tuesday, as Israel continued to strike Lebanon including the capital Beirut.

The group said in a statement it had targeted the Maayan Baruch site in northern Israel with rockets, "in response to the criminal Israeli aggression that struck dozens of Lebanese cities and towns, including Beirut's southern suburbs".

The latest round of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel started early Monday when Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli attacks on Saturday.

The Israeli military said it hit a high-ranking Iranian commander in Tehran on Tuesday, in the fourth day of the war which started with US and Israeli strikes.

"A short while ago, the (Israeli military) struck a senior Iranian terror regime commander in Tehran," an army statement said, without providing further details.

Israeli forces advanced into a border area in Lebanese territory on Tuesday, a Lebanese army source told AFP, shortly after the Israeli defence minister instructed his troops to "take control of additional strategic positions in Lebanon".

"Israeli ground forces advanced from Kfar Kila and the Khiam plains," along the Lebanon-Israel border, the source said, requesting anonymity and expressing concern over "Israel's attempt to establish a broad security belt in south Lebanon".

Iran on Tuesday urged the United Nations Security Council to take action to stop the Islamic republic's war with Israel and the United States.

"The United Nations Security Council has a duty... if it wishes, it can certainly act, because there is no obstacle to its action except its own will," said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei during a foreign ministry briefing.

Qatar's state-owned energy firm announced that it would stop downstream production. In an X post, the firm stated, "Further to the decision by QatarEnergy to stop production of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and associated products, QatarEnergy is stopping the production of some downstream products in the State of Qatar, including urea, polymers, methanol, aluminum and other products. QatarEnergy values its relationships with all of its stakeholders and will continue to communicate the latest available information."

Oman downed two drones, while another crashed near its Salalah port on Tuesday, state media said, as Iran continues to target civilian and military infrastructure in the Gulf over US and Israeli attacks.

"A security source reported that two drones were shot down over the Dhofar Governorate, and a third crashed near the port of Salalah area, with no casualties or material damage reported," the Oman News Agency said in a statement.

India reiterated on Tuesday its call for dialogue and diplomacy, underlining that the death and destruction in Iran and the Gulf region is evoking great anxiety. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issued its second statement reiterating its call for restraint and prioritising the safety of civilians, while accepting that some Indians were left dead, while others were missing.

Referring to its previous statement, the MEA said, “We had expressed our deep concern at the commencement of the conflict in Iran and the Gulf region on 28 February 2026. Even at that time, India had urged all sides to exercise restraint, avoid escalation and prioritize the safety of civilians.” “Unfortunately, in the holy month of Ramadan, the situation in the region has deteriorated significantly and continuously,” it said.

Referring to the intensification and spread of the conflict to other nations in recent days, the government highlighted that almost one crore Indian citizens live and work in the Gulf region.

“Already, some Indian nationals have lost their lives or are missing as a result of such attacks in the last few days…The destruction and deaths have mounted, even as normal life and economic activities come to a halt,” the statement read.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan renewed his call for an end to escalating violence and a return to diplomacy. “Our fundamental request and demand is clear: the mutual attacks must stop immediately and diplomacy must resume,” Fidan said, according to a transcript of his remarks to journalists late Monday.

The minister said Turkey consistently emphasizes this message during talks with other leaders. Commenting on Iran’s attacks on Gulf states’ facilities, Fidan said Iran hopes these countries will pressure the United States to stop the war, while adding he believes that outcome “is not likely.”

The Kremlin said Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin will convey the Gulf leaders’ concern over the Iranian strikes on their territory to Iran, Associated Press reported. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Putin will “make every effort to facilitate at least minor easing of tension.”

He noted that after Monday’s calls with the leaders of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Putin will convey their “deep concern about the strikes on their infrastructure” to Tehran.

As Israel's strikes continued on Lebanon, a senior Hezbollah official said on Tuesday, the group will fight an "open war" with Israel. The official, according to Associated Press, said that after more than a year of abiding by the ceasefire, the group’s patience has ended, leaving it with no option “but to return to resistance”.

Mohamoud Komati said that Hezbollah exercised patience since a ceasefire ended the Israel-Hezbollah war in November 2024, hoping the government’s diplomatic efforts would yield positive results in ending Israeli strikes.

In the comments released by Hezbollah’s media office, Komati blasted the Lebanese government for calling Hezbollah’s actions illegal and demanded it hand over its weapons, saying it did not act to stop Israel’s airstrikes that continued on almost daily basis for nearly 15 months. “The Zionist enemy wanted an open war, which it has not stopped since the ceasefire agreement,” Komati said. “So let it be an open war.”

The Israeli military on Tuesday said it was creating a buffer zone in Lebanon, shortly after the defence minister ordered troops to seize more positions across the border, AFP reported.

"In practice, Northern Command has moved forward, taken control of the dominating terrain, and is creating a buffer, as we promised, between our residents and any threat," military spokesman Effie Defrin said in a televised statement, it said.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned on Tuesday that they would unleash more intense attacks on the United States and Israel as the war raged for the fourth day.

"The enemy must await continuous punitive attacks; the gates of hell will open more and more, moment by moment, upon the United States and Israel," the Guards spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini told state TV, reported AFP.

Saudi Arabia condemned on Tuesday an overnight Iranian attack on the US embassy in Riyadh, as Tehran keeps up its retaliation campaign in the Gulf over US and Israeli strikes.

The Saudi foreign ministry, in a statement, expressed "its strongest condemnation and rejection of the heinous attack that targeted the US Embassy building in Riyadh", describing it as "cowardly and unjustified".

China, a major importer of oil and natural gas from the Mideast, has called on all sides to stop the fighting and ensure ships can pass safely through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has attacked several ships in the the narrow strait through which a fifth of all oil traded passes, sending oil and gas prices soaring.

“China urges all parties to immediately cease military operations, avoid escalating tensions, safeguard the safety of shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz and prevent greater impacts on the global economy,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in Beijing, Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

The Israeli military said Tuesday it has struck Iran’s presidential office and the building of the country’s Supreme National Security Council. It said the airstrikes happened overnight.

“In addition, the gathering site of the regime’s most senior forum responsible for security decision-making was targeted, as well as the institution for training Iranian military officers and additional key regime infrastructure,” it added. Iran did not immediately acknowledge the strikes.

The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said Tuesday that Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment site sustained “some recent damage” during a US-Israeli airstrike campaign, though it said there was “no radiological consequence expected” from it.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the damage was focused on “entrance buildings” to the underground portion of the atomic site. Natanz earlier came under attack by the US in the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June.

The IAEA said it saw “no additional impact” detected at Natanz’s fuel enrichment plant, which is buried underground. Nuclear material is still believed to be buried at the plant alongside damaged and destroyed centrifuges. However, the IAEA has not been allowed to visit any of the attacked sites by Iran since that war.

Airstrikes by the United States and Israel have killed at least 787 people in Iran since the start of the war, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said in a post on X on Tuesday.

The Embassy of India in Iran on Tuesday said Indian students in the country were relocated to safer locations outside Tehran as part of precautionary arrangements. The embassy said it had arranged for their transportation, food and accommodation.

Some of the students, sources said, have been shifted to the Qom region. The embassy said that only a small number of students who declined the Embassy's offer remain in Tehran. It also advised its nationals in Iran to exercise utmost caution and remain indoors as far as possible as the security situation in the Persian Gulf nation deteriorated in view of fresh military strikes by the US and Israel.

"In view of the developing situation, all Indian nationals in Iran are advised to exercise utmost caution, avoid unnecessary movements and remain indoors as far as possible," the Indian embassy in Tehran said in a fresh advisory.

Israel’s army said Tuesday that Iran’s firepower has been weakened. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said Israeli and U.S. attacks on Iran have “limited significantly” Iran’s ability to fire.

Shoshani said Israel has been going after Iran’s missile launchers and has taken out dozens of them. Iran has fired hundreds of missiles, but it’s hard to tally the total amount, as Iran is also striking other countries, he said.

The pace of missiles being launched at Israel has slowed since the first two days of the war. Shoshani said the slowdown also could be partly attributed to Iran's understanding that the war could go on for longer than they had thought, and they are trying to pace themselves. (AP).

A 4.3-magnitude earthquake struck Iran's Gerash region on Tuesday, amid the escalating conflict in the Islamic Republic. There were no immediate indications of major damage or injuries. The quake intensified the existing regional tensions.

Amid the US-Israel-Iran conflict, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi must speak up and answer as to whether he supports the assassination of a head of state as a way to define the world order. He said the unilateral attacks on Iran, as well as Iran's attacks on other Middle Eastern nations, must be condemned.

"Silence now diminishes India’s standing in the world," the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said on X. His remarks come days after Iran confirmed that its Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had been assassinated in targeted strikes carried out the previous day by the United States and Israel. Gandhi said escalating hostilities between the United States, Israel and Iran are pushing a fragile region toward wider conflict.

European stock markets slid further at the start of trading on Tuesday and the region's natural gas prices soared once more as the Iran war shook financial markets.

Frankfurt's DAX index of top German companies shed 2.0 percent, the Paris CAC 40 lost 1.8 percent and London's FTSE 100 retreated by 1.4 percent in value.

The Dutch TTF natural gas contract, considered the European benchmark, shot up more than 33 percent having rocketed almost 40 percent on Monday after Qatar halted liquefied natural gas production following Iranian attacks on state processing facilities. (AFP).

The Israeli military said one of its divisions is operating inside southern Lebanon and has taken positions on several strategic points close to the border.

The Arabic language spokesperson of the Israeli military posted on X that the troops’ move inside Lebanon is part of its efforts to bolster the forward defence system and create an additional layer of security. The military said that at the same time, the air force is conducting strikes against Hezbollah infrastructure in the area to thwart threats and prevent infiltration attempts into Israel.

The Israeli operations inside Lebanon came after a long night of airstrikes on southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Brent crude was up more than 4 percent to over $81 per barrel in afternoon trade in Asia on Tuesday on the back of the turmoil in the Middle East. Around 0800 GMT Brent was trading up 4.41 percent at $81.17 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate was up 3.99 percent at $74.07 per barrel. (AFP).

Iran has started the process of returning Iranian pilgrims from the shrine cities of Mecca and Medina, state media said Tuesday. Alireza Enayati, Iran’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said the process of returning 9,000 Iranians currently in the cities of Mecca and Medina began Monday.

In a report carried by the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency, Enayati said the departure is taking place in the same manner as during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in 2025. Iranian pilgrims will leave Saudi Arabia through Saudi–Iraqi border crossings and return to Iran from Iraq. The announcement came during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and a widening that has seen Iran target sites in Saudi Arabia. (AP).

Airstrikes targeting an air base in southeastern Iran killed at least 13 Iranian troops there, local media reported. The semiofficial Tasnim news agency and the Hammihan daily newspaper reported the strike in Kerman, 800 kilometres (500 miles) southeast from Iran’s capital, Tehran. The Kerman Air Base is known to house military helicopters. (AP).

The Israeli military says there are no immediate plans to deploy ground troops in Iran. Asked about the possibility of sending in ground forces, spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani told reporters it is “not very likely.” (AP).

China called on all sides involved in the Middle East war to maintain safety in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route for oil and gas.

"China urges all parties to immediately cease military operations, avoid further escalation of tensions, maintain the safety of shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz, and prevent a greater impact on the global economy," Beijing's foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a news conference. (AFP).

Drones targeted an Omani port on Tuesday, hitting a fuel tank, state media said, as Iran presses its retaliation campaign on the Gulf in response to US and Israeli strikes.

"A security source reported that fuel tanks at the commercial port of Duqm were targeted by a number of drones, one of which hit a fuel tank. The resulting damage was contained without any human casualties," the Oman News Agency said in a statement. (AFP).

The Iranian Red Crescent Society said the US-Israeli operation has killed at least 555 people. In Israel, where several locations were hit by Iranian missiles, 11 people were killed. Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Hezbollah killed 52 people in Lebanon.

“Military escalation would force more families from their homes and hit civilians hard,” Associated Press quoted Amy Pope, director general of the International Organization on Migration, saying on Tuesday as she called for the international community to press for de-escalation.

“Millions are already displaced in the region,” she said. The US military has confirmed six deaths of American service members. All six were Army soldiers in a logistics unit in Kuwait, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Three people were killed in the United Arab Emirates, and one each in Kuwait and Bahrain. The chaos of the conflict became apparent when the U.S. military said Kuwait had “mistakenly shot down” three American fighter jets while Iran was attacking it with aircraft, ballistic missiles and drones. US Central Command said all six pilots ejected safely.

Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Tuesday said it targeted three Israeli military bases in response to the strikes on the group's strongholds in Lebanon, including the south Beirut suburbs.

"In response to the criminal Israeli aggression on dozens of Lebanese cities and towns", Hezbollah fighters targeted with drones the Ramat David air base and the Meron base in northern Israel with drone strikes, the Iran-backed group said in multiple statements. They added that they also targeted a base in the occupied Golan Heights with a rocket barrage.

The United States embassy in Riyadh has confirmed an attack and urged people to stay away, saying it would be closed on Tuesday. "Avoid the embassy until further notice due to an attack on the facility," a statement said, urging American citizens to "shelter in place", AFP reported.

Meanwhile, the US embassy in Kuwait has also closed until further notice, a day after smoke was seen rising from the mission following Iranian attacks on the country.

"Due to ongoing regional tensions, the US Embassy in Kuwait will be closed until further notice. We have cancelled all regular and emergency consular appointments," the embassy said in a statement on X.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have targeted a United States air base in Bahrain, the force said in a statement carried on Tuesday by the official IRNA news agency, AFP reported.

"The IRGC announced that... its naval forces carried out a large-scale drone and missile attack at dawn on the US air base in the Sheikh Isa area of Bahrain," IRNA posted on Telegram, using the acronym for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The force said in its statement that 20 drones and three missiles were launched, "destroying the base's main command headquarters," without providing evidence.

Tehran's latest claimed attack came after its military launched salvos across the Gulf region in retaliation for US and Israeli strikes on Iran that began on Saturday.

Israel's military said it was carrying out simultaneous strikes Tuesday on Tehran and Beirut as the Mideast war widened and intensified.

"The IDF is currently conducting simultaneous strikes in Tehran and Beirut. The Israeli Air Force has begun targeted strikes against military objectives of the Iranian terror regime and the Hezbollah terrorist organisation," Israel's military said.

US President Donald Trump said the United States was "not where we want to be" in terms of its stockpiles of the highest-end weapons, as American forces deploy large quantities of munitions against Iran.

"At the highest end, we have a good supply, but are not where we want to be," he wrote on Truth Social, adding the US has sufficient "medium and upper medium grade" weapons.

"Wars can be fought 'forever,' and very successfully, using just these supplies (which are better than other countries' finest arms!)," he added, referring to the "medium and upper medium grade" weapons.

US President Donald Trump says America has a “virtually unlimited supply” of munitions to use as the war with Iran rages. Trump, writing on his Truth Social website, said: “The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better - As was stated to me today, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons.”

He added: “Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies.” He said “additional high grade weaponry” is “stored for us in outlying countries.”

Trump did not elaborate, but his post comes as analysts begin raising concerns about the number of munitions the US has as the campaign continues — particularly air defense missiles.

Israel's military claimed on Tuesday that it had killed Abu Hamza Rami, Commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in the Lebanon sector in Beirut.

"Abu Hamza Rami carried out hundreds of terrorist attacks against IDF troops and Israeli civilians, including recruiting and training terrorists and procuring weapons. During Operation Northern Arrows, he managed the movement of PIJ’s terrorists along the Syria-Lebanon border and their activities against IDF troops in southern Lebanon. His elimination has significantly degraded PIJ’s ability to carry out terrorist operations against Israel," the Israel Defence Forces said in a post on X.

Earlier today, Israel launched strikes on Hezbollah targets in Beirut, after warning it would press ahead with its campaign against the Iran-backed group. "The IDF is currently striking Hezbollah command centres and weapons storage facilities in Beirut," a statement from the military said.

US military officials said Monday they destroyed command posts of Iran's Revolutionary Guards as well as Iranian air defense and missile launch sites, in the Middle Eastern war that broke out over the weekend.

"U.S. forces have destroyed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps command and control facilities, Iranian air defense capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and military airfields during sustained operations," US Central Command wrote in an X post.

As the war between US-Israel and Iran enters day 4, fresh explosions have been reported from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia early on Tuesday, AFP reported quoting its journalist and residents. Iran presses on with its campaign of retaliatory strikes across the Gulf as a retaliation to the US-Israeli attacks on Tehran that have killed hundreds of people, including Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A Riyadh resident said on Tuesday morning that he "heard a bang and the house shook". Earlier in the morning, Saudi's defence ministry confirmed two drones had struck the US embassy in Riyadh, starting a small fire.

The ministry also said that it had intercepted more than half a dozen drones near capital Riyadh and the city of Al-Kharj. "Eight drones were intercepted and destroyed near the cities of Riyadh and Al-Kharj," said defence ministry spokesman Major General Turki al-Malki on X.

The drone attack on the Saudi Aramco oil refinery in Ras Tanura in Saudi Arabia on Monday was an Israeli "false flag" operation, Tasnim News Agency reported on Monday evening, quoting a military source. Tasnim is a semi-official news agency in Iran associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The agency said Israel's goal is to "distract the minds of regional countries from its crimes in attacking civilian sites in Iran".

"Iran has announced frankly that it will target all American and Israeli interests, installation, and facilities in the region, and has attacked many of them so far, but Aramco facilities have not been among the targets of Iranian attacks so far,” the agency reported. The military source, it said, also underlined that the port of Fujairah in the UAE is also one of the next targets of the Israelis in the "false flag" operation.

The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for dozens of locations in Lebanon on Tuesday, including a warning for residents in two southern Beirut neighbourhoods to stay away from several buildings ahead of imminent military action.

"Urgent warning to the residents of Lebanon, specifically in the villages whose names are shown. For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately," said a statement by the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee on Telegram, which listed 50 locations.

"You are located near Hezbollah facilities and interests, against which the IDF will operate in the near future," he told the residents of southern Beirut neighbourhoods Ghobeiry and Haret Hreik in another evacuation warning. (AFP).

Tokyo has told Japanese shipowners to have their ships stay away from the Persian Gulf to ensure the safety of their crewmembers. Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara told reporters Tuesday that the Transport Ministry has notified the Japanese Shipowners’ Association to do the utmost to protect crews on board the ships in the region.

Kihara said those already in the Gulf are urged to lie at anchor where it is safe to do so. On Monday, Japan’s Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi met with the Iranian ambassador to Japan, Peiman Seadat and conveyed Japan’s consistent stance that Iran must stop attacks on neighbouring countries and other actions destabilising the region. Motegi also noted the importance of ensuring safety in the Strait of Hormuz, which is key to Japan’s energy security. (AP).

Amazon Web Services (AWS) said two of its data centres in the United Arab Emirates were "directly struck" by drone strikes in the region. "In the UAE, two of our facilities were directly struck, while in Bahrain, a drone strike in close proximity to one of our facilities caused physical impacts to our infrastructure. These strikes have caused structural damage, disrupted power delivery to our infrastructure, and in some cases required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage. We are working closely with local authorities and prioritising the safety of our personnel throughout our recovery efforts," the company said in a service update.

AWS urged its customers in the Middle East to immediately back up their data and move their systems to AWS platforms in the US, Asia, Europe or elsewhere, given the "unpredictable" situation in the Middle East.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday defended his decision not to join the US-Israel strikes on Iran over the weekend, saying his Labour Party government did not believe in “regime change from the skies”. Starmer was updating Parliament on his earlier announcement that the UK had granted permission for the Americans to use British bases for "limited defensive purpose” in West Asia.

His statement to MPs in the House of Commons came after President Donald Trump said he was “very disappointed” that the UK PM took “far too long” to change his mind over the use of British bases. “This government does not believe in regime change from the skies,” Starmer told the Commons. Read more...

Al-Azhar al-Sharif, the Sunni Muslim world’s foremost seat of religious learning, has called for an immediate halt of the war in the Middle East.

The Cairo-based institution also denounced attacks on Arab countries, saying that “these aggressions are rejected ... whatever the justifications, pretexts or explanations.” (AP)

Energy prices rose sharply Monday as disruptions to tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and damage to production facilities raised uncertainty about how U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran would affect supply to the world economy.

The biggest shock was to natural gas prices, which rose more than 40% in Europe when QatarEnergy, a major supplier, halted production of liquefied natural gas after its facilities were attacked.

“Infrastructure is at risk throughout the region, and it’s not just at risk because of deliberate attacks, but also inadvertent attacks," said Kevin Book, managing director at Clearview Energy Partners. “Shrapnel and debris from missile interceptions can fall onto facilities and disable them too, and so there are a number of challenges that come from this kind of conflict in an area with so much energy production.” Read more...

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Tuesday said there was no so-called Iranian threat and the US entered the war on behalf of Israel. In a post on X, he said "Mr. Rubio admitted what we all knew: U.S. has entered a war of choice on behalf of Israel. There was never any so-called Iranian "threat." Shedding of both American and Iranian blood is thus on Israel Firsters. American people deserve better and should take back their country."

An Israeli strike hit the south Beirut office of Al-Manar TV, which is affiliated with Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, the broadcaster said on Tuesday. Israel "targets the Al-Manar Channel building in the Haret Hreik area," Al-Manar wrote on Telegram, referring to a part of south Beirut. (AFP)

Human Rights Activists News Agency, a rights group based in the US, said that 85 civilian deaths were reported and 11 military personnel were killed in following the joint US-Israeli strike in Iran on Monday. The rights agency said that it has recorded at least 56 military incidents across 13 provinces in the past 24 hours.

Iranian drones struck an Australian military facility in the United Arab Emirates but there were no injuries, Australia’s Defense Minister Richard Marles said. The drones struck on the first night of the Iran war the Al Minhad Air Base, which is a logistics hub for Australia’s Middle East operations near Dubai, Marles said on Tuesday.

“We have a number of Australians who operate from a headquarters that we’ve had at Al Minhad now for many, many years,” Marles told Seven Network television. “They are all accounted for, they are all safe. We’ve got north of 100 serving personnel actually across the Middle East in a range of countries, but most are in the UAE and that base is very important for us,” he added. (AP)

Iran-run state TV aired the aftermath of two explosions around the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting premises following US-Israeli strikes. The head of the IRIB told Iranian media that no one was injured in the early Tuesday strikes. The state broadcast aired smoke from around what broadcasters called the “glass tower of IRIB” near the Evin area of Tehran.

IRIB offices and infrastructure have been hit before since the start of the US-Israeli strikes on Saturday.

The strikes followed an evacuation warning from the Israeli army to residents of the Evin district of Tehran, asking them to avoid the area around the IRIB buildings. Shortly after, the Israeli Air Force said it struck what it described as a communication centre used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. (AP)

UNESCO has voiced concerns about the Golestan Palace, a world heritage site in the Iranian capital, which was reportedly damaged due to an airstrike in its vicinity. Monday’s strike hit Tehran’s Arag Square in the buffer zone of the palace, the U.N. agency reported. The palace was damaged by debris and shock waves from the strike, it said. "UNESCO recalls that cultural property is protected under international law, notably the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, including its enhanced protection mechanism, as well as the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage," the UN agency said in a statement.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Iran had been building new nuclear weapon sites that would have been impossible to attack within months, creating urgency for strikes on the country.

"They started building new sites, new places, underground bunkers, that would make their ballistic missile programs and their atomic bomb programs immune within months," Netanyahu told Fox News. "If no action was taken now, no action could be taken in the future." (AFP)

President Donald Trump suggested Monday that the United States would retaliate "soon" after its embassy in the Saudi capital Riyadh was struck by two suspected Iranian drones.

Speaking to the NewsNation network, Trump said "you'll find out soon" how the United States would respond, without providing further detail, after the US embassy confirmed a drone attack that caused "a limited fire and minor material damage." After the attack, the embassy issued a shelter-in-place notification for US citizens in Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran.

Sharing the images of the graves dug for girls killed in the US strike in Iranian town Minab, Foreign Minister Abbas Aragch said, "These are graves being dug for more than 160 innocent young girls who were killed in the US-Israeli bombing of a primary school. Their bodies were torn to shreds. This is how "rescue" promised by Mr. Trump looks in reality. From Gaza to Minab, innocents murdered in cold blood".

The United States has issued an urgent advisory asking American citizens to "depart now" from over a dozen Middle Eastern countries due to "serious safety risks," as tensions escalated following coordinated US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran and Tehran's retaliatory strikes against the US allies in the Gulf. Sharing a video message in a post on X, Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged its citizens to immediately depart from several Middle Eastern countries, citing "serious safety risks." "To all American citizens in the Middle East: your safety and security is our number one priority. Sign up to receive STEP alerts at http://step.state.gov. Get information at @TravelGov and you can call the department 24/7 at +1-202-501-4444," Rubio wrote in its post.

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Defence has confirmed that the US embassy in Riyadh was attacked by two drones, according to initial estimates.

In a statement shared to X, the ministry said this resulted "in a limited fire and minor material damage to the building". The US Mission to Saudi Arabia has issued a shelter-in-place notification for Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran, and says it will limit non-essential travel to any military installations in the region.