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
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%
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
MOSCOW, March 18 (Reuters) - Russia on Wednesday condemned a strike near Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant a day earlier which it said was just metres away from its reactor and called on the United States and Israel to stop attacking the Islamic Republic's nuclear facilities.
March 18 (Reuters) - The site in Kabul hit by a Pakistani airstrike this week was used for storing drones and military grade ordnance, and to train suicide bombers, the Pakistani military said on Wednesday. The Afghan Taliban government had said the strike targeted a rehab
The line of cars stretched as far as the eye could see along the coast of southern Lebanon, as residents of areas bombarded in the Israel-Hezbollah war poured into the ancient city of Sidon in search of safety. At war with Iran-backed Hezbollah, Israel has called on everyone
WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has full confidence in Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Wednesday, after a top security official resigned over the war in Iran. Joe Kent,
CAIRO/GAZA, March 18 (Reuters) - Israel has killed nearly a dozen Gaza police officers this week as it steps up attacks on a Hamas-run force that the militants have used to re-establish governance in areas under their control, Gaza authorities say. Hamas' nearly 10,000 police
The Israeli-US war on Iran has provoked a reaction from Tehran that has effectively choked a large chunk of the world's oil supply, and untangling the blockage will take a regional effort beyond what is currently being proposed, experts have told AFP. President Donald Trump has
The United Arab Emirates' banks have seen their stocks plummet since the war erupted on Feb. 28.
Israeli dairy and fruit farmer Tommy Kurlender refused to abandon his herd during the last war with Hezbollah, and vowed he would again stay put this time around. The Israel-Lebanon border area has once again come under fire since Hezbollah launched attacks in support of its
The Iranian women's national football team crossed the Turkish border into Iran on Wednesday, among them several players who withdrew an asylum bid in Australia. Seven members of the delegation had sought sanctuary in Australia last week after being branded "traitors" in Iran
Sara Saleh and her family fled wearing their pyjamas on Wednesday when Israel's military said it would strike a central Beirut building near the school-turned-shelter where they had been staying. Several other strikes, however, came without warning, jolting terrified residents
A multibillion-dollar pipeline sale in Kuwait has emerged as one of the early signs that the Gulf’s dealmaking machine is taking a hit from the US-Israel-Iran war.
The deployment to a key Turkish airbase likely signals NATO planners’ heightened concern over Turkey’s military assets.
By Ismet Mikailogullari GURBULAK, Turkey, March 18 (Reuters) - The Iranian women's soccer team crossed the Turkish border into Iran on Wednesday to complete a fraught return journey from Australia, after five members withdrew asylum claims they had lodged there. Australia had
Israel repeatedly struck central Beirut on Wednesday, with Lebanese authorities reporting a death toll of at least 12 including a director for Hezbollah's Al Manar TV channel, and said it would strike river crossings in south Lebanon. Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war
Israel Aerospace Industries is working round the clock to produce more Arrow interceptors, but production is complex and slow ■ The company must also produce hundreds of interceptors for Germany by 2030 ■ Home Front Command's order to change the alert system will make it
By Jana Choukeir DUBAI, March 18 (Reuters) - Since February 28, U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran have killed several senior political and military figures, hitting the core of the Islamic Republic's leadership in a war that has spread across the Middle East, disrupting energy
The head of the UN's maritime body Wednesday urged "practical measures" to protect trade ships threatened by the Middle East war, as he opened an emergency meeting amid fears for thousands of stranded ships and seafarers. The International Maritime Organisation -- responsible
By John Irish PARIS, March 18 (Reuters) - It is unreasonable to expect the Lebanese government to disarm Iran-backed Hezbollah while the country is being bombed by Israel, France's special envoy for Lebanon said on Wednesday. Jean-Yves Le Drian said only negotiations would
The Iranian women's national football squad arrived in eastern Turkey and headed to the Iran border on their way home Wednesday, among them several players who withdrew an asylum bid in Australia. The players, who landed in Istanbul on Tuesday evening on a flight from Oman,
By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) - U.S. senators get a chance on Wednesday to question top aides to President Donald Trump in public about national security nearly three weeks into the Iran war as the Senate intelligence committee holds its annual hearing on
By Tim Reid WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) - The Iran war is influencing Democratic primaries ahead of November's midterm elections, with progressives faulting moderate rivals for not opposing President Donald Trump's bombing campaign strongly enough and for what they call
BEIJING, March 18 (Reuters) - China will continue mediating to push for a ceasefire and an end to fighting in the Middle East, its foreign minister said, adding the war should never have happened and had no reason to continue, according to a foreign ministry statement. Foreign