March 19 (Reuters) - The Iranian national team are continuing to prepare for the World Cup finals and have no intention of pulling out of the tournament even if they will not travel to the United States, soccer chief Mehdi Taj said on Wednesday. Iran were one of the first
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi risks the wrath of US President Donald Trump at the White House Thursday after rebuffing his call to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The first female premier in Japan's history, conservative Takaichi has had a strong supporter in Trump,
Joe Kent, who stepped down as director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told Tucker Carlson the U.S. should have used military aid as leverage to block Israel's offensive and questioned the influence of pro-Israel lobbyists on America First policy
By Yomna Ehab and Jaidaa Taha March 18 (Reuters) - Qatar's state oil giant QatarEnergy said on Wednesday that Iranian missile attacks on Ras Laffan, the site of the country's core LNG processing operations, caused "extensive damage", while the UAE shut gas facilities after
Iran targeted energy facilities across the Gulf and threatened further destructive attacks after a key gas field was hit, raising fears Thursday of a wider assault on fuel supplies that could jolt already rattled global markets. The warning came after Israel killed the Islamic
By Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, Erin Banco and Gram Slattery WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration is considering deploying thousands of U.S. troops to reinforce its operation in the Middle East, as the U.S. military prepares for possible next
WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) - The Pentagon has asked the White House to approve a more than $200 billion request to the U.S. Congress to fund the war in Iran, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing a senior administration official. (Reporting by Jasper Ward and
The strike on the West Bank town of Beit Awa, near Hebron, also wounded six other women, the Red Crescent said. Emergency services reported that a Thai foreign worker was killed in central Israel, while several others were lightly wounded in the Arab town of Jaljulya and Tel Aviv
JERUSALEM, March 18 (Reuters) - Three Palestinian women were killed in an Iranian missile attack in the occupied West Bank late on Wednesday, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, in the first deadly Iranian strike there — and the first to kill Palestinians — since the start of
US President Donald Trump attended the return Wednesday of six crew members killed when their refueling aircraft crashed during the Iran war. It was the second time since the start of the conflict that Trump has traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the remains of
CAIRO, March 18 (Reuters) - The Iraqi armed group Kataib Hezbollah said on Wednesday it would suspend attacks on the U.S. embassy for five days with conditions. The conditions listed by the group in a statement included Israel's halt of displacing and striking residents of
By Maggie Michael TEHRAN, March 18 (Reuters) - Nearly three weeks of war on Iran have hit the usually teeming alleys of Tehran's grand bazaar, shutting many of the shops and driving up prices for Iranians already suffering from years of sanctions that have throttled the
STOCKHOLM, March 18 (Reuters) - Iran executed a Swedish citizen on Wednesday, Sweden's foreign minister said, adding that she had summoned the Iranian ambassador in Stockholm to condemn the decision. The person, who was not named, was arrested in Iran in June of last year and
Anwar Gargash, the senior political adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates, estimated that Iran would take Israel's place as the biggest threat to Gulf states. He also announced that his country is prepared to participate in a U.S.-led international effort to
NEW YORK, March 18 (Reuters) - Syria on Wednesday launched a plan supported by Washington to rid the Middle Eastern country of legacy chemical weapons that were used against its people by forces under ousted leader Bashar al-Assad. For decades, Assad ran a large-scale program
A US-brokered breakthrough between Baghdad and Erbil has restarted Iraqi oil exports through Turkey after a weeklong standoff.
LONDON, March 18 (Reuters) - Britain said it was working to provide more support for its partners in the Gulf who are under attack from Iran, as it announced plans to buy extra missiles to protect the region. Britain's fighter jets and other forces have been helping shoot down
By Daren Butler ISTANBUL, March 18 (Reuters) - Thousands of Turks gathered in central Istanbul on Wednesday in support of jailed mayor Ekrem Imamoglu at an opposition rally, one year after President Tayyip Erdogan’s main rival was arrested on corruption charges. Supporters
Since the 1979 revolution, Iran has taken steps to ensure it is not reliant on a single security force but rather multiple structures to defend the Islamic republic against external and internal threats. All these forces have been mobilised since the start of the war between
Tulsi Gabbard's appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee is the first public sworn testimony from senior U.S. officials since the start of the Iran war
Organizers said the initiative – dubbed the "Spring 2026 Flotilla" – could involve thousands of participants from more than 100 countries and over 100 vessels. But uncertainty looms as regional war tensions and Israel's past crackdowns cast doubt on whether the flotilla will
Despite global economic disruptions, China may tolerate prolonged US involvement in Iran, as it could drain American resources and shift focus away from the Indo-Pacific.
By Andreas Rinke, Ludwig Burger and John Irish BERLIN/PARIS, March 18 (Reuters) - For a self-described Transatlanticist like German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the language has been unusually blunt. When President Donald Trump asked countries to join a global effort against Iran
By Pesha Magid EILON, Israel, March 18 (Reuters) - Israel has more than doubled the number of troops along its border with Lebanon since March 1 and they are searching homes in southern Lebanese villages that the military has ordered evacuated, a senior Israeli commander said
Despite no Hezbollah operatives in the first line of villages bordering Israel, the army is concerned about armed men in the area and the group's efforts to launch an extensive missile barrage into Israeli territory every few days
Through one conflict after another, herders in Iraqi Kurdistan have grazed their animals under the endless blue skies of the Zagros Mountains -- a lifestyle they are stoically trying to maintain as yet another war engulfs the region. Since the beginning of the US and Israeli
Just a trickle of cargo ships and tankers has made it through the Strait of Hormuz since Iranian forces blocked the crucial trade route in the Middle East war. Here are facts and figures about vessels that have passed through the 167-kilometre (104-mile) strait since the war
Lebanon's Health Ministry says 12 of the dead were killed in two Beirut strikes. Among the dead are an Al-Manar TV reporter and his wife. The IDF announced it had completed a wave of strikes against Hezbollah infrastructure, including against a financial association used by the
By Joshua McElwee ROME, March 18 (Reuters) - The Vatican's top diplomat on Wednesday called on U.S. President Donald Trump to end the expanding Iran war as soon as possible and suggested Israel should also stop its strikes against Lebanon. "I would say to finish it as soon as
March 18 (Reuters) - Several loud bangs were heard in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Wednesday and some of the city's residents received phone alerts for the first time warning them of a hostile aerial threat, a Reuters witness in the city said. (Reporting by Timour Azhari.
By Parisa Hafezi DUBAI, March 18 (Reuters) - The killing of Iran's most influential powerbroker, Ali Larijani, has pushed the Islamic Republic into a more uncertain phase, complicating decision-making in Tehran and narrowing its options as the war grinds on. The U.S.-Israeli
By Mohammad Yunus Yawar and Ariba Shahid KABUL/KARACHI, March 18 (Reuters) - Former heroin user Nazar Mohammad said the Kabul rehabilitation centre bombed by Pakistan cured him of his drug addiction two years ago and helped keep him alive. He even stayed on to work there as a
An international media association on Wednesday criticised an "unprovoked assault" by Israeli police on journalists in Jerusalem, which it said left a CNN producer with a fractured wrist. The Foreign Press Association (FPA) said police officers on Tuesday night "unnecessarily
Iran's threats against Jordan come as King Abdulah visits the Gulf and Jordan continues to host thousands of US troops.
MADRID, March 18 (Reuters) - Spain plans to evacuate and relocate troops deployed in Iraq in the coming days due to the conflict in Iran and the wider Gulf region, Defence Minister Margarita Robles said on Wednesday. Around 300 Spanish troops are deployed in Iraq, both as part
By Jonathan Saul LONDON, March 18 (Reuters) - A proposal from the UN's shipping agency on Wednesday calls for a safe maritime corridor to free some 20,000 seafarers stranded in the Gulf by war in Iran. Hundreds of vessels have dropped anchor since Tehran threatened to attack
US intelligence concluded Wednesday that Iran was not rebuilding nuclear enrichment capacities destroyed last year by the United States and Israel, contradicting a key justification by President Donald Trump for his ongoing war. Tulsi Gabbard, a Trump ally who is director of
WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) - The White House said on Wednesday that China had agreed to postpone U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to Beijing, originally scheduled in just two weeks. Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said that the White House was working to secure a new date
US President Donald Trump's administration scrambled Wednesday to rein in surging energy costs from war in the Middle East, temporarily waiving a century-old shipping law and easing Venezuela sanctions. The moves came after oil prices rocketed following US-Israeli strikes on
The upheaval in Iran's leadership since the start of the war with Israel and the United States has further strengthened the political influence of the Islamic republic's ideological army, the Revolutionary Guards, analysts said. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was
Tehran has warned it will target Gulf oil and gas facilities following Israel's strike on South Pars.
DUBAI, March 18 (Reuters) - Facilities belonging to Iran's oil industry in South Pars and Asaluyeh were attacked on Wednesday, Iranian state media said, prompting Tehran to warn that it would target energy installations across Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Qatar's Foreign Ministry Spokesman called Israel's strike on the field, the largest of its kind, 'dangerous and irresponsible,' adding that it poses a 'threat to global energy security,' The price of Brent crude, considered an international oil benchmark, rose 5 percent
The Wall Street Journal reported later on Wednesday, citing U.S. officials, that though President Trump supported Israel's strike on the gas field, he is now reluctant to greenlight additional strikes on Iranian energy sites
LONDON, March 18 (Reuters) - Britain's national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, was not part of final talks between the United States and Iran before the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Tehran, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday.
By Steven Scheer TEL AVIV, March 18 (Reuters) - Iran has launched dozens of missiles with cluster munition warheads at Israel since the start of the war, posing a challenge for Israel's missile defence shield as they need to be hit before they split and disperse into smaller
Here are the latest developments Wednesday in the Middle East war: - NATO allies discuss Hormuz - NATO chief Mark Rutte said allies were in talks on the "best way" to re-open the Strait of Hormuz, the key oil corridor where Iran has choked off much of the world's oil supply. -
Top US intelligence official offered Senate lawmakers conflicting assessments on whether Iran sought to rebuild its uranium enrichment capabilities after US B2 bomber strikes last year.
Iran is a close partner of Russia, which built and helps run Iran's only nuclear power station. However, Russia denied earlier reports of it sharing satellite imagery and improved drone technology with Iran, calling it 'fake news'
By Alessandro Parodi March 18 (Reuters) - As Emirates flight EK10 from London cruised over Saudi Arabia on Monday, news broke of a drone strike at its destination, Dubai. The aircraft turned back to Gatwick, flight data show, completing a 9,100 km (6,150 miles) round trip — one