Iranian missile strike US Al-Udeid base, IRGC 'spy cells' dismantled in Qatar

This concludes our live blog for tonight, rolling coverage from the region will resume at 8:00am GMT.

The US State Department has given its non-emergency personnel and their families in Saudi Arabia and Oman permission to leave, the US embassies in both Gulf states said Tuesday, as Iran launches retaliatory strikes in response to US-Israeli air raids.

The department "authorized non-emergency US government employees and US government employee family members to leave" Saudi Arabia and Oman "due to safety risks," the US embassies in Riyadh and Muscat said in advisories on their websites.

Oman, which played a mediation role in talks between the United States and Iran, has called for a ceasefire in the war, while Riyadh has condemned Iranian salvos, including an attack on the US embassy in Riyadh which forced it to close on Tuesday.

The Saudi defence ministry said two cruise missiles were intercepted Wednesday over an area south of the capital Riyadh, and state media reported a separate drone attack was thwarted.

"Two cruise missiles were intercepted and destroyed in Al-Kharj" district, a defence ministry statement said, while the official Saudi Press Agency cited a ministry spokesman as saying "nine drones were intercepted and destroyed immediately upon entering the Kingdom's airspace". The statements did not say who may be behind the attacks.

A loud explosion was heard by an AFP journalist in the Lebanese capital Beirut shortly after midnight on Wednesday, as Israel and Hezbollah traded strikes and rocket fire.

Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli strikes on two towns south of Beirut -- outside of Iran-backed Hezbollah's traditional strongholds -- killed six people and wounded eight.

Later on Wednesday Lebanese state media said Israeli strikes hit a hotel in the Beirut suburb of Hazmieh and a four-storey building in the eastern city of Baalbek.

The Israeli army has issued evacuation orders for 16 Lebanese towns, ahead of attacks.

Lebanon's Ministry of Health has said that six people were killed and eight others wounded by Israeli strikes on the regions of Armon and Saadiyat in Mount Lebanon.

Hezbollah says it has targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers in the al Matla area.

Defence sector executives are meeting at the White House on Friday to discuss increasing weapons production, Reuters reports.

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Defence has said that nine drones were intercepted and destroyed upon entering the kingdom's airspace.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called on Wednesday for the rapid de-escalation of the conflict unleashed by US-Israeli strikes on Iran, urging all parties to respect the international rules of engagement.

Speaking in Sydney, Carney said the war in the Middle East represented "another example of the failure of the international order".

"Canada calls for a rapid de-escalation of hostilities and is prepared to assist in achieving this goal," he said.

"Canada reaffirms that international law binds all belligerents," he said.

US Military Central Command (CENTCOM) has said that nearly 2,000 targets have been struck in Iran.

Four of the six U.S. soldiers killed in the Iran war were identified Tuesday by the Pentagon as members of the Army Reserve from different states who worked in logistics and kept troops supplied with food and equipment.

They died Sunday when a drone hit a command center in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, just a day after the U.S. and Israel launched its military campaign against Iran. Iran responded by launching missiles and drones against Israel and several Gulf Arab states that host U.S. armed forces.

Those killed were Capt. Cody Khork, 35, of Winter Haven, Florida; Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, 42, of Bellevue, Nebraska; Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, Minnesota; and Sgt. Declan Coady, 20, of West Des Moines, lowa, who was posthumously promoted from specialist. No other names were released.

Israel says it has launched 'broad wave' of strikes on Iran.

A loud explosion was heard by an AFP journalist in the Lebanese capital Beirut shortly after midnight on Wednesday, as Israel and Hezbollah traded strikes and rocket fire.

Hezbollah reprised its rocket and drone attacks on Israel on Monday after a long hiatus in retaliation for the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a wave of joint US-Israeli strikes.

A drone attack has targeted a Kurdish opposition forces camp near the Iraqi city of Erbil, Reuters reported, citing security sources.

Iran's Fars news agency quoted an "informed official" as saying that the final session for selecting Iran's supreme leader will be delayed until next week to be held in person after the funeral of slain leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Kuwait has said in a statement that two of its soldiers were killed by Iranian attacks on Monday.

Qatar says it dismantled two spy cells linked to Iran's Guards: state media

Qatar's Defence Ministry has said that an Iranian missile struck the United States' Al-Udeid Airbase.

The Iranian news agency ISNA reported the killing of Brigadier General Abdul Majid Rahbar, commander of the "15 Khordad Group" in the Revolutionary Guard in Isfahan.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed a drone strike Tuesday adjacent to the US consulate in Dubai and said all personnel were safe.

"A drone unfortunately struck a parking lot adjacent to the chancellery building and then set off a fire in that place. All personnel are accounted for," Rubio told reporters in Washington.

Israel's transport minister said the country will gradually reopen its airspace overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, after it was closed to civilian flights as the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran.

The initial approved flights will be to repatriate Israelis, a transport ministry spokesperson told AFP, adding that there will be no departures for now.

"The airspace will reopen gradually starting already on the night between Wednesday and Thursday, and of course subject to security developments," Miri Regev said during a press conference at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport.

The reopening had initially been scheduled for next week but was moved up "following security assessments with professional and security experts," Regev said.

Sharon Kedmi, director general of the Israel Airports Authority, told reporters the re-opening will begin "very cautiously, with one aircraft per hour during the first 24 hours -- a narrow-body aircraft."

"After 24 hours, if everything works as planned, we will increase to two narrow-body aircraft per hour or one wide-body aircraft," he added.

Israel closed its airspace to civilian flights Saturday after it launched surprise attacks on Iran, amid negotiations between Tehran and Washington.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq has said it has carried out 27 attacks on "enemy" targets in Iraq and the region since Tuesday dawn.

An Iraqi official has said that a drone was shot down near Baghdad's international airport.

Footage posted online shows the consulate in Dubai ablaze after a suspected Iranian attack. 

Iran says firing new salvo of missiles at Israel: local media

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed Saturday in US-Israeli strikes, will be buried in the holy city of Mashhad, the Fars news agency said Tuesday.

Khamenei, who died at 86 after leading for 36 years, was originally from Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city, where his father is buried at the Imam Reza shrine. No date for the burial was disclosed.

Iran's Fars news agency, citing informed sources, reports that consultations are in their final stages, and a new supreme leader may be announced soon.

The Trump administration is considering providing security for oil and gas tankers travelling through the Strait of Hormuz, Politico reports.

Iranian state media quoted a senior IRGC official as saying that regional economic centres would be targeted if the US and Israel continue their attacks.

Reuters quoted two security sources as saying that Iraq shot down a drone that attempted to target the US consulate in Erbil.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the U.S. military had been successful against many Iranian defenses, saying "just about everything has been knocked out."

He made his comments in the Oval Office ahead of a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Israel struck a headquarters belonging to the 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 US Embassy in Beirut will remain closed "until further notice", it said in a statement, citing the security situation.

Israel's Ben Gurion Airport, the country's main international gateway near Tel Aviv, said Israeli airspace was set to gradually reopen overnight Wednesday to Thursday, with only one passenger flight per hour in the first phase.

The airport would eventually open to two passenger flights per hour in a second phase, Ben Gurion Airport said in a statement on Tuesday, without giving a timeline.

Israel's airspace was closed on Saturday at the start of US-Israeli strikes on Iran, which have triggered retaliatory missile barrages from Iran against Israel.

One of Iran's two airports, Mehrabad, which mainly handles domestic flights, was targeted on Tuesday by strikes as the United States and Israel kept up their bombardment of the Islamic Republic for a fourth day.

The Mehr news agency published photos showing a cloud of grey smoke rising into the sky behind what appeared to be a runway. "The American-Zionist terrorists attacked the area around the Mehrabad airport" in the capital's west, it said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel was continuing to pound Iran and vowed to hit Hezbollah with increasing force as the war has 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.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a phone call on Tuesday with his Omani counterpart Badr Albusaidi to discuss the situation around Iran, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The ministers urged the earliest possible halt to hostilities and a return to political and diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis.

Both sides said they were ready, including at the United Nations, to support peaceful, compromise solutions based on international law.

The son of Iran's last shah, Reza Pahlavi, who has positioned himself as an alternative if the Islamic Republic falls, called on Tuesday for national unity from Iranian ethnic minorities as war engulfed the Middle East.

Pahlavi, in an X post, looked to assure ethnic minorities they would not be discriminated against if he were leading the country, and appeared to urge them not to use the current conflict to press for separation.

"We stand at the threshold of this regime's fall. Yet we must remain vigilant and prepared, and deny opportunistic forces -- those who have long cast covetous eyes on Iran's soil -- the chance to exploit this moment," he said.

"You are an inseparable part of Iran's historical and cultural fabric... I am confident that you will remain steadfast in this covenant," he added.

"I firmly believe that through national unity and shared resolve, a bright future awaits you and every Iranian."

My dear compatriots in the provinces of Khuzestan, Ilam, Kermanshah, Kordestan, and Western Azerbaijan;

Brave and patriotic Azeris, Kurds, and Lors of Iran;

The honorable Yarsan community;

And the proud tribes of Jaff, Kalhor, Sanjabi, and Bakhtiari,

From the very first days… https://t.co/r14UBx0Vte

— Reza Pahlavi (@PahlaviReza) March 3, 2026

Israel's military said on 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 [Israeli army] targeted industrial sites used by the Iranian regime to produce weapons, particularly ballistic missiles," the military said in a statement.

Hezbollah said it targeted an Israeli tank on the edge of a Lebanese border village on Tuesday, hours after Israel's defence minister ordered his troops to take control of more strategic positions inside Lebanon.

In a statement, the pro-Iran armed group said: "In response to the criminal Israeli aggression... and after monitoring movements by the Israeli enemy army in Tel Nahas on the outskirts of Kfar Kila, our fighters targeted a Merkava tank with appropriate weapons and scored a direct hit."

Earlier Tuesday, a Lebanese army source told AFP Israel was undertaking a ground incursion "from Kfar Kila and the Khiam plains" along the Lebanon-Israel border.

Israel's Magen David Adom emergency services said Tuesday they were treating 12 people with injuries following the latest salvo of missiles fired from Iran.

"Medics and paramedics are providing medical treatment and evacuating to hospitals 12 injured people, including a woman of about 40 in moderate condition with blast injuries, and 11 people lightly injured with cuts from glass shards and blast 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.

AFP footage showed security forces in high-visibility vests and helmets deployed at one site. At another, a fire engine was stationed as forces sprayed non-flammable foam on the charred wreckage of cars.

The Tasnim news agency said on Tuesday that "US and Israeli fighters" struck central Tehran on the fourth day of the war between Iran, the United States and Israel.

Tasnim aired a video filmed in central Tehran, which is home to numerous government buildings, showing smoke rising into the sky.

"Significant damage has been observed to homes in the neighbourhood" near Enghelab Square, Tasnim reported. AFP was not immediately able to verify the extent of the damage.

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 US and Israel launched joint strikes on his country.

Ali Bahreini, the ambassador of Iran's mission to the UN in Geneva, told reporters that Iran had not contacted the US either directly or indirectly about holding talks to de-escalate the conflict or to resume negotiations over Tehran's nuclear programme.

Asked about the prospects for any talks, Bahreini said: "For the time being we are very doubtful about the usefulness of negotiation...The only language for talking with the United States is the language of defence."

"I don't think it is a time for having any kind of negotiation from our side," he added.

Lebanon's Hezbollah said on Tuesday that it had downed an Israeli drone over the southern Lebanese town of Nabatieh, without specifying whether the target was a surveillance or attack drone. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

In the war on Lebanon, Hezbollah downed several Israeli surveillance drones over Lebanon.

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.

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

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

Local media showed footage of the building severely damaged in the strikes. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in US and Israeli strikes on Saturday.

Saudi oil giant Aramco is attempting to reroute some of its crude exports to the Red Sea to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, where the risk of attacks has slowed shipping to a near halt, sources said on Tuesday.

"There are logistical trade-offs involved, including the reduction of NGLs takeaway capacity and what rate the Yanbu crude terminal on the Red Sea can sustainably load vessels at," said Richard Bronze, co-founder of consultancy Energy Aspects.

At least 40 people have been killed and 246 wounded in Israeli attacks on Lebanon on Monday and Tuesday, a spokesperson for Lebanon's Health Ministry said.

The spokesperson said a death toll of 52 given by the health ministry on Monday had been a technical error.

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 US consulate," the embassy wrote on its official X account.

The warning came just hours after the USUSission 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.

Iran's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva cast doubt on the prospect of negotiations with the United States on Tuesday, three days after the US and Israel launched joint strikes on the country.

"For the time being we are very doubtful about the usefulness of negotiation," Ali Bahreini, ambassador of the Iranian mission to the UN in Geneva, told reporters.

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.

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.

"China opposes any military strikes launched by Israel and the United States against Iran," Wang told Gideon Saar, according to the Xinhua news agency.

"Force cannot truly solve problems, instead, it will only bring new problems and severe after-effects."

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 said. "The circumstances of the impact are under review."

Israel's ambulance service said it was treating three people at the sites who were lightly injured.

Israeli police said there were several impact areas involving munition fragments within the Tel Aviv district.

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday met the chief executives of energy companies Eni and Snam to discuss how to mitigate the impact of the Iran crisis on energy security and prices, a government statement said.

"The issue of energy security was addressed, with an analysis of the current and potential impact of hostilities on energy markets and the economy, as well as possible mitigation measures the government could take," the statement said.

NATO chief Mark Rutte said Tuesday there was broad backing among US and European allies for President Donald Trump's military offensive against Iran.

Washington's bombardment of Iran, which saw Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei killed, has unleashed airstrikes across the Middle East.

"I feel widespread support in Europe. I was on the phone with many leaders over the weekend and also early this week," Rutte told journalists on a visit to North Macedonia.

"I clearly sensed that taking out the nuclear capability, taking out the ballistic missile capability, and also Khamenei gone, this is applauded by many of my colleagues in NATO."

Rutte underlined that the NATO military alliance, founded to protect Europe and North America, was "not involved" in the military operations.

"But I can assure you that NATO will defend every inch of NATO territory," he said.

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.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Tehran wanted to talk, but it was too late, as the United States continued its military operation against Iran.

"Their air defense, Air Force, Navy, and Leadership is gone. They want to talk. I said “Too Late!" Trump said in a Truth Social post commenting on an opinion piece.

Germany's foreign ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador on Tuesday to call on the country's leadership to stop attacks on states in the region, it said in a post on X.

"We have unequivocally called on the Iranian regime to immediately cease its reckless attacks on countries in the region," the ministry posted on the social media platform.

It said it condemned Iran's "arbitrary and disproportionate" missile and drone attacks, including on civilian targets.

Two Turkish journalists who were in Israel to cover the Iran war have been detained, officials and a union said on Tuesday.

CNN Turk reporter Emrah Cakmak and cameraman Halil Kahraman, who "were in Tel Aviv to follow the news, have been detained", Turkey's Journalists' Union (TGS) said on X.

Burhanettin Duran, the communications chief at the Turkish presidency, slammed Israel for its "attacks on the press".

"We are making the necessary efforts for the immediate release of our journalist colleagues and are following the matter with sensitivity," he said on X.

The union said the journalists were there to film in connection with the Iran strikes and to share the latest situation with viewers in Turkey.

"Blocking journalists who are responsible for informing the public, and failing to protect journalists in war zones, is a violation of press freedom," it said, urging Israel to "release our colleagues".

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 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.

The Iranian government announced on Tuesday that it was banning exports of all food and agricultural products as the war with Israel and the United States raged for a fourth day.

"The export of all food and agricultural products has been banned until further notice," Tasnim news agency said, citing a government statement.

"The government has prioritised the supply of essential goods for the people," it added.

Iran has activated contingency plans since Saturday, when the United States and Israel launched attacks on the Islamic Republic, killing the country's supreme leader along with senior military commanders.

The US successfully debuted a low-cost suicide drone in combat in Iran just eight months after its Pentagon unveiling, as the US pushes to accelerate weapons programs.

The Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS) drone, manufactured by Arizona's SpektreWorks, was showcased in July 2025 when Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth walked the Pentagon's inner courtyard with more than a dozen companies competing to supply the military with new equipment.

Drones have become central to modern warfare following their effective use in the Ukraine war, including Iran-made Shahed systems flown by Russia that closely resemble the LUCAS.

The sector is also among the most fiercely competitive in the US defence industry, with SpektreWorks vying for Pentagon contracts against major defence primes and a wave of Silicon Valley–backed startups such as Anduril, Shield AI and AeroVironment.

US Central Command said LUCAS drones are modelled after the Shahed.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow had still seen no evidence that Iran was developing nuclear weapons as the US and Israel pursue their attack.

US President Donald Trump has offered various reasons for going to war with Iran. On Monday, in his most extensive public comments so far, he said he had ordered the attack to thwart Tehran's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

Lavrov told Brunei's foreign minister during talks in Moscow: "We still see no evidence that Iran was developing nuclear weapons, which was the main, if not the only, justification for the war."

He said the consequences of the attack on Iran were being felt throughout the region, and that Arab countries were bearing economic costs and suffering casualties.

He reiterated Russia's call for an immediate cessation of hostilities by all parties:

"As an unconditional first step, we must do everything possible to stop any actions that result in civilian casualties."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned on Tuesday that the war launched by the US and Israel against Iran could prompt not only Iran but also its Arab neighbours to seek to acquire nuclear weapons.

The widening war in the Middle East increased the risk that nuclear proliferation issues could spin out of control, Lavrov said.

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".

The UN 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 thorough investigation into the circumstances of the attack. The onus is on the forces that carried out the attack to investigate it," UN human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a Geneva press briefing, describing the incident as "horrific".

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US forces "would not deliberately target a school", after Iranian state media reported over 160 were killed on the first day of the US and Israeli attacks on Iran.

Qatar's foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday that there was no ongoing communication with Iran.

The spokesperson also said Iranian targets were not limited to military sites, but included all Qatari territory.

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 military thwarted attacks on Hamad International Airport, the Gulf state's foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday, as Iran pressed a retaliatory campaign across the Gulf.

"There were attempts to attack Hamad International Airport, they were all thwarted... the missiles were downed by our defensive measures, and none of them have reached the airport," Majed al-Ansari told a press conference, adding that Qatar had not been in contact with Iran since the start of the strikes.

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. Rosatom said on Saturday it had evacuated nearly 100 people from Iran, but its personnel have remained at the plant, which was built by Russia in the Iranian port city of Bushehr.

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.

Turkey, a NATO member and neighbour of Iran, had for weeks urged Washington and Tehran to reach an agreement during their rounds of negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme and missile capabilities, warning that the region could not handle any more destabilisation.

Fidan told members of Turkish media during a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner on Tuesday that Turkey was "sensitively carrying out necessary initiatives with all our counterparts" to achieve peace in the region, and added it was critical to preserve the stability of Iran and the region.

"There isn't a single-layered negotiation, there is a multi-layered negotiation," Fidan said, according to a transcript of his comments shared on Tuesday.

"We have been talking to the Europeans for a few days... If you want peace, let's work together. We are urging them to take action. The Gulf nations are now facing a serious situation," he said.

Aid crossings that had been momentarily closed to Gaza will reopen, the United Nations World Food Programme said on Tuesday.

"The crossings will be opened, and that is timely for us, and we need to get in aid as fast as we can," Samer Abdel Jaber, WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Cairo. 

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.

A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck the Gerash region in Iran on Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said. The quake was at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles), USGS said.

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.

"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.

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".

At least 30,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon due to the escalation of hostilities in the Middle East, the United Nations said Tuesday.

"As of yesterday, the conservative estimates suggest that nearly 30,000 people were hosted and registered at collective shelters. Many more slept in their cars on the side of roads," Babar Baloch, spokesman for the UN refugee agency, told a press conference in Geneva.

A spokesperson for China's foreign ministry, in its regular daily press briefing, urged all parties to stop military operations in Iran and prevent the further spread of war.

Calling for the involved parties to return to dialogue, the spokesperson said China was deeply concerned about the spread of war into other countries and would continue to play a constructive role in striving for peace.

China respects Iran's "legitimate right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy," a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday, while urging a stop to US military actions in favour of returning to talks and negotiations.

US strikes on Iran "during ongoing negotiations...violate international law and basic principles of international relations", ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a regular press briefing.

"The Iran nuclear issue should eventually return to the track of political and diplomatic settlement," Mao said.

Drone strikes blamed on Iran hit on Tuesday a camp hosting Iranian Kurdish fighters and family members in northern Iraq, a local official and an exiled opposition group said.

Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region hosts camps and rear bases operated by several Iranian Kurdish rebel groups, which have repeatedly faced cross-border strikes from Iran.

A local official in the Koysinjaq district, Tareq al-Haidari, told AFP, "three Iranian drones targeted the Azadi camp, which belongs to Iranian Kurdish opposition parties in the district".

One drone directly hit the camp's hospital, wounding one person, said Haidari and a commander from the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI).

PDKI commander Mohammed Nazif Kader told AFP "drones and missiles attacked the camp", blaming the attack on Iran.

Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun said Tuesday that the decision to ban Hezbollah's military activities is "irreversible", as the Iran-backed movement claimed responsibility for new attacks targeting Israeli positions.

Speaking to members of the Quintet -- a committee made up of the French, US, Qatari, Saudi Arabian, and Egyptian ambassadors -- the president called the decision "final," after a Hezbollah on Monday night lambasted the state's "impotence in the face of the brutal Zionist enemy".

Aoun urged the Quintet members to "pressure Israel to stop its aggressions against Lebanon" as Israel continued launching intense strikes and authorised its troops to "take control of additional strategic positions in Lebanon".

At least 13 Iranian troops killed in airstrike at an air base in southeastern Iran, local media report.

Loud explosions rocked Iran's capital on Tuesday, AFP journalists said, as the war with the United States and Israel entered its fourth day.

The blasts were heard in northern Tehran, but it was not immediately clear what was hit, the reporters said. Iranian media also reported explosions in Karaj city, outside of Tehran, as well as the central city of Isfahan.

Iran's army said on Tuesday its forces launched attacks on Israel and a US military base in Qatar, as the war raged for a fourth day.

"The destructive combat drones of the army's ground, air, and naval forces... targeted the military areas of the Zionist regime in the occupied territories and the bases of American forces in Al-Udeid, Qatar," said the army in a statement carried by Shargh daily.

The Israeli military on Tuesday said it had carried out air strikes on Iran's presidential office and the National Security Council building in Tehran as part of its ongoing campaign against the Islamic Republic.

"The Israeli Air Force... struck and dismantled facilities within the leadership compound of the Iranian terrorist regime in the heart of Tehran" overnight, the military said.

"During the strike on the compound, numerous munitions were dropped on the presidential office and the building of the Supreme National Security Council," it added.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot held a call on Monday with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, to discuss the war on Iran, and both agreed to work on de-escalation, Barrot's office said in a statement.

Both ministers committed to seeking a political solution that would guarantee collective security and take into account the aspirations of the Iranian people, the statement said.

Barrot "reiterated the Iranian regime's responsibility for the ongoing escalation, after it unjustifiably attacked several countries in the region," the statement said.

He also criticised the Iranian regime for refusing to respect the resolutions from the United Nations' Security Council on the nuclear programmes, ballistic activities, support to non-state armed groups and rejecting good-faith multilateral negotiations.

The French minister reiterated that France was not involved in the actions by the United States and Israel and had no prior knowledge of them. Countries "must give precedence to international institutions to solve disputes and, where needed, the use of force," he added.

The two ministers agreed to keep the dialogue open on the issue. 

A member of Iran's Assembly of Experts, charged with choosing a new Supreme Leader, said picking Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's successor 'won't take long', Iran's ISNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

Israel on Tuesday ordered the military to take control of more positions in Lebanon, where the army pulled back some of its forces after Hezbollah attacked Israeli bases in support of its backer, Iran.

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and I have authorised the [Israeli army] to advance and take control of additional strategic positions in Lebanon in order to prevent attacks on Israeli border communities," Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.

In response, the Lebanese army has redeployed soldiers from several recently established border positions on Tuesday following the Israeli army's "escalation", a Lebanese military source told AFP.

Iran warned European countries on Tuesday against joining the US and Israel's war, after Germany, Britain and France said they could take "defensive action" to destroy Iran's missile-launching capabilities.

"It would be an act of war. Any such act against Iran would be regarded as complicity with the aggressors. It would be regarded as an act of war against Iran," foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said at a press briefing when asked about the statement.

UN nuclear watchdog IAEA said on Tuesday there was some recent damage to entrance buildings at Iran's underground Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP), adding that it expected no radiological consequence or additional impact detected at FEP itself.

A series of overhead explosions were heard from Jerusalem on Tuesday, AFP journalists reported, after the Israeli military said it had detected fresh missiles launched from Iran.

"The IDF has detected that a short time ago missiles were launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel. Defence systems are operating to intercept the threat," the military said.

Iranian Red Crescent Society says at least 787 people in Iran have been killed in US-Israeli airstrikes so far.

US President Donald Trump warned that his attack on Iran could run longer than a month.

Shortly after the United States urged Americans to flee all Middle Eastern nations from Egypt eastward, two drones hit the US embassy in Riyadh, sparking a quick vow by Trump to retaliate "soon", without elaborating how.

Trump said that the war was going "substantially" ahead of schedule but that the United States was equipped for a prolonged conflict.

"From the beginning we projected four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that," Trump said at the White House.

Tech giant Amazon said late Monday that two of its data centres in the United Arab Emirates were "directly struck" by drones, disrupting cloud services in parts of the Middle East.

A facility in Bahrain was also damaged by "a drone strike in close proximity", the provider said in an update to its service updates dashboard.

A number of Gulf cities have been dealt collateral damage, hit by strikes and stray weaponry since the United States and Israel launched attacks on Iran, killing Iran's supreme leader and other top officials.

"Due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, both affected regions have experienced physical impacts to infrastructure as a result of drone strikes," Amazon said in the update.

"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."

The company did not specify if any of its employees were injured in the drone strikes, and said they were working closely with local authorities while "prioritising the safety of our personnel throughout our recovery efforts".

A prolonged war in the Middle East and a persistent fall in oil and gas supplies from the region could cause a substantial spike in inflation and a sharp drop in output in the euro zone, ECB Chief Economist Philip Lane told the Financial Times in an interview published on Tuesday.

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

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

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. We will continue to take decisive action against imminent threats… pic.twitter.com/0aHEyVHf5e

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) March 3, 2026

The US on Tuesday ordered non-emergency government personnel and their family members to leave Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq and Jordan and closed several diplomatic missions across the region as tensions with Iran escalated.

The US Mission to Saudi Arabia was closed on 3 March following a drone attack, with Americans in Jeddah, Riyadh, and Dhahran told to continue sheltering in place.

The US Embassy in Kuwait said it would remain closed until further notice, and all regular and emergency consular appointments were cancelled.

In Israel, the US Embassy said it was not in a position to evacuate or directly assist Americans seeking to leave the country and advised citizens to make their own security plans.

The Lebanese army has redeployed soldiers from several recently established border positions on Tuesday following the Israeli army's "escalation", a military source told AFP.

The troops, numbering in total eight to nine soldiers at each point, were redeployed to their bases because of the danger to their safety, the Lebanese military said.

The move comes after Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday he had authorised his military to "take control of additional strategic positions in Lebanon".

The Israeli military said soldiers are "operating in southern Lebanon" as it continues strikes against Hezbollah.

In a statement, it said the troops are positioned at several points near the border in what it described as a "forward defence posture".

It said the deployment is part of a broader effort to increase security for residents in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon. It has also beefed up troops and air forces in the area.

The army said there are no plans to evacuate Israeli residents of border areas.

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

Israel's military on Monday vowed to intensify its attacks on the country and make Hezbollah pay a "heavy price" after rocket and drone fire from the Iran-backed group.

"Urgent warning to the residents of Lebanon, specifically in the villages which names are shown," said a statement by the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee on Telegram, which listed 50 locations.

"For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately."

Most of the locations were across the south of Lebanon, which Israel regularly targets with the aim of hitting Hezbollah infrastructure.

He told the residents of the southern Beirut neighbourhoods Ghobeiry and Haret Hreik in another evacuation warning to avoid two buildings.

"You are located near Hezbollah facilities and interests, against which the IDF will operate in the near future," he said.

"For your safety and the safety of your family members, you must evacuate these buildings and those adjacent to them immediately and stay away from them for a distance of no less than 300 metres (984 feet)," he added.

In a later warning, he told "those in the southern suburbs of Beirut, especially in the Hadath neighbourhood" to avoid a third building.

Iran hit the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia's capital with a drone strike early Tuesday as it kept striking targets around the region.

The attack from two drones on the US Embassy in Riyadh caused a "limited fire" and minor damage, according to Saudi Arabia's Defence Ministry, which did not release further details. It follows an attack the day before on the US Embassy in Kuwait.

The US Embassy in Saudi Arabia has acknowledged coming under attack from Iranian drones on Tuesday and urged Americans to avoid the diplomatic post for the time being.

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

"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.

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

Israel continues to carry out successive air raids, particularly on Beirut's southern suburbs and the south of the country, after issuing evacuation warnings to residents, while Lebanese authorities on Monday recorded the displacement of around 29,000 people from areas hit by the strikes.

Israel announced Tuesday morning it had begun a new round of "simultaneous strikes in Tehran and Beirut".

The Israeli military also said it had deployed troops to several locations in southern Lebanon in what it described as a "forward defence" measure along the border.