By Federico Maccioni, Lucy Craymer and Rachna Uppal DUBAI, March 3 (Reuters) - As Middle East tensions rise ever higher, tens of thousands of people are finding themselves stranded across the Gulf with few options for leaving a region suddenly engulfed by war.
March 3 (Reuters) - Here are statistics released by Gulf defence ministries on drones and missiles that Iran has fired at their territories since the start of the U.S.-Israeli air war against Iran: UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Ballistic missiles: * 186 ballistic missiles detected *
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday boasted of wide damage on Iran inflicted by the US-Israel attack, while denying that Israel had forced his hand into launching the war. "Just about everything's been knocked out," Trump said as he met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz,
Tehran feels like a ghost town, with residents who have not fled remaining shut away in their homes for fear of new explosions from the US-Israeli bombardment. "I'm afraid to walk in the deserted streets because bombs are still falling from the sky," said Samireh, a 33-year-old
Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei's death is "historically significant" but will not "automatically" lead to the fall of the Iranian system, the widow of the country's last shah told AFP in an interview Tuesday. "The passing of a man -- however central he may be to the
KYIV, March 3 (Reuters) - Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy discussed Iranian strikes with United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. Ukraine has great expertise in countering drones and missiles, honed
WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the U.S. military had been successful against many Iranian naval and air targets, saying "just about everything has been knocked out." He made his comments in the Oval Office ahead of a meeting with
Iran once boasted that it controlled four Arab capitals: Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and Sanaa in an alliance dubbed the "Axis of Resistance". But the network -- long used as a regional force against Israel -- has been weakened since the Gaza war and now risks collapse, upending
LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday that Britain was sending helicopters with counter-drone capabilities to Cyprus, and was deploying the air defence destroyer naval vessel HMS Dragon to the region. (Reporting by Sam Tabahriti;
By Ben Makori and Sam Tabahriti LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - A British couple jailed in Iran have described explosions shaking Evin prison where they are being held and damage to their wing as the conflict intensifies around Tehran, their son told Reuters after speaking to them
BEIJING, March 3 (Reuters) - China opposes the military strikes launched by Israel and the U.S. against Iran and demands an immediate cessation of hostilities, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar on Tuesday, according to his ministry. "Force cannot
By Parisa Hafezi DUBAI, March 3 (Reuters) - Terrified residents of Iran's capital described it as a ghost town on Tuesday, its streets largely emptied by a U.S.-Israeli missile barrage apart from security checkpoints and Revolutionary Guards patrols that rove the city. The
Evacuation flights are set to rescue tens of thousands of travellers stranded in the Middle East even as some airlines resumed on Tuesday a limited number of scheduled flights. The situation remains dangerous in the region, with Qatar saying it had blocked Iranian attacks on
Nearly 1,900 of more than 5,450 flights scheduled to the Middle East were canceled Tuesday, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal that Trump spoke with Kurdish leaders in Iran on Sunday, and is engaging with other leaders in an ongoing basis who could take advantage of the regime's weakness
By Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday said it was pulling out non-essential personnel from several U.S. missions across the Middle East and advised American citizens to immediately leave the region even as air travel remains severely
By Olivia Le Poidevin GENEVA, March 3 (Reuters) - Iran's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva on Tuesday ruled out for now any negotiations with the United States, three days after the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on his country. Explosions rocked Tehran again
March 3 (Reuters) - Commercial flights across parts of the Middle East have been grounded due to the escalating conflict after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, stranding foreign nationals and prompting governments to consider repatriation. Below is what governments and
By Renee Maltezou ATHENS, March 3 (Reuters) - Greece's shipping minister on Tuesday called for the protection of global shipping and seafarers, amid an "alarming" situation that has left dozens of ships stranded in the Strait of Hormuz and the wider area due to the widening
By Emma Farge GENEVA, March 3 (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands more children face acute malnutrition in Afghanistan this year amid a hunger crisis exacerbated by foreign aid cuts and violence on the border with Pakistan, a U.N. official said on Tuesday. International aid to
March 3 (Reuters) - Iran's ongoing conflict with the U.S.and Israel has led to sporting events being postponed in several countries, while competitions elsewhere have been hit by travel disruption, with thousands of flights cancelled in some of the world's busiest transit hubs.
The war in the Middle East triggered by US and Israeli strikes on Iran has raised the question of whether the Iranian national team will take part in the World Cup later this year, during which it is due to play group games in the United States. - What is Iran's position? - The
By William Schomberg and David Milliken LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - British finance minister Rachel Reeves said she would provide stability for the economy in a budget update speech on Tuesday that contained no big policy surprises and was overshadowed by alarm among investors
JERUSALEM, March 3 (Reuters) - Israel's military on Tuesday reported strikes in the Tel Aviv area of Israel from Iranian missiles. "Search and rescue forces, together with numerous emergency teams, are currently operating at the impact sites in central Israel," the military
By Steven Scheer JERUSALEM, March 3 (Reuters) - Israeli authorities are using container ships to bring back dozens of essential medical staff stuck abroad after the air war with Iran broke out on Saturday, disrupting travel, according to Israel's cargo firm ZIM Shipping. A ZIM
More than 30,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Lebanon by the escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, the United Nations said Tuesday. Israel is continuing to carry out air raids in Lebanon in a campaign against Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah,
WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - Donald Trump said the U.S. military has enough stockpiled weapons to fight wars "forever", as the Republican president and his administration continued their push to justify a broad, open-ended war on Iran with shifting aims and timeline. In a
By Samia Nakhoul DUBAI, March 3 (Reuters) - Iranian airstrikes on Gulf states could push them into a broad coalition aligned with the United States and widen the war against Iran, Middle East analysts said, after attacks on ports, cities and oil facilities in a vital
Israel said it killed Reza Khazaei, chief of staff of Hezbollah’s Lebanese Corps within Iran’s elite Quds Force, in a naval strike.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Rubio's statement proves that the U.S. entered a war of choice on behalf of Israel, charging that 'Israel Firsters' were responsible for the bloodshed
LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - Foreign minister Yvette Cooper said on Tuesday that Britain was working with airlines on increasing capacity out of Muscat, Oman to prioritise the evacuation of vulnerable British nationals. Cooper, addressing lawmakers in parliament, said she was in
While Israel may have legitimate objectives against Hezbollah, prolonged and extensive ground operations in Lebanon would play directly into Tehran's hands. In the meantime, it's unclear whether Israel will leave disarmament to the Lebanese government or try to take up the task
The United Nations on Tuesday urged all parties to "come to their senses" and end the war in the Middle East, with fear and panic spreading across the region and beyond. UN human rights chief Volker Turk said he was "deeply shocked" by how the conflict was affecting civilians.
Pakistani nationals hauled suitcases across the border from neighbouring Iran, describing missiles being launched and travel chaos as they scrambled to leave the country that the United States and Israel hit with strikes over the weekend. AFP journalists saw a steady trickle of
Energy prices surged on Tuesday, sending stocks tumbling and the dollar rising as investors worried about inflation and the inability of central banks to help with interest rate cuts. World oil prices soared around nine percent and European natural gas prices rocketed for a
By Mike Stone, David Jeans and Joey Roulette March 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. successfully debuted a low‑cost suicide drone in combat in Iran just eight months after its Pentagon unveiling, as the U.S. pushes to accelerate weapons programs. The Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack
LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - Britain is planning to send a warship to defend its Royal Air Force Akrotiri base in Cyprus from Iranian attacks, the Times newspaper said on Tuesday. An Iranian-made drone strike hit a runway at the Akrotiri base in the early hours of Monday, and
ANKARA, March 3 (Reuters) - Turkey is engaging with all parties to find a way to end the war in Iran and return to negotiations, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said, adding that Ankara was also in talks with Oman on the matter as the Gulf nation works for the same goal. The
MOSCOW, March 3 (Reuters) - The Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran is under threat as a result of the escalating conflict, the head of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said on Tuesday, according to the RIA state news agency. "There is certainly a threat to the plant,"
By Maya Gebeily, Alexander Cornwell and Jana Choukeir BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, March 3 (Reuters) - Lebanon was pulled deeper into the war in the Middle East on Tuesday as the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah launched missiles at Israel for a second consecutive day and Israel sent
By Tamiyuki Kihara, Ben Blanchard, Tim Kelly and Praveen Menon TOKYO/TAIPEI/SYDNEY, March 3 (Reuters) - Japanese lawmakers reeling from attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel gathered on Monday at the ruling party's offices in Tokyo to question bureaucrats about
Three buildings were destroyed between Sunday and Monday, weeks after the site was previously struck. It remains unclear who was responsible for the attack
GENEVA, March 3 (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights office urged the "forces" behind an attack on a girls' school in Iran to investigate and share insights into the "horrific" incident, without naming them. "The High Commissioner (Volker Turk) calls for a prompt, impartial and
MOSCOW, March 3 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow had still seen no evidence that Iran was developing nuclear weapons as the U.S. and Israel pursue their attack. U.S. President Donald Trump has offered various reasons for going to
MOSCOW, March 3 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin will convey to Iran concerns among Arab leaders about Tehran's strikes on oil infrastructure in the region, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, as the Iran conflict continued to widen. Putin held a flurry of phone calls on
ANKARA, March 3 (Reuters) - Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said work was underway with the United States to lift sanctions imposed on Ankara before the U.S. midterm elections in November, but added Israel was opposed to the potential move. In 2020, Washington imposed
March 3 (Reuters) - The Israeli military said early on Tuesday that it was carrying out strikes on Hezbollah command centers and weapons storage facilities in Beirut. (Reporting by Enas Alashray and Yomna Ehab; Editing by Nia Williams)
GENEVA, March 3 (Reuters) - At least 30,000 displaced people have sought protection in shelters in Lebanon since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah began on Monday, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday. "Conservative estimates suggest that nearly 30,000