WASHINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) - A complex tug-of-war inside the White House is driving U.S. President Donald Trump's shifting public statements on the course of the Iran war, as aides debate when and how to declare victory even as the conflict spreads across the Middle East.

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, March 12 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said that he thinks new Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, whose father, the former supreme leader, was killed on the first day of the U.S. and Israel's war on Iran, is alive but "damaged."

Khamenei has not been seen by Iranians since his selection on Sunday by a clerical assembly, and his first comments were read out by a television presenter on Thursday.

For Sahar Saidian, past and present collide every day on the airwaves as she hosts a Persian-language show on Israeli public radio for listeners in Israel and in Iran, the country she left behind years ago.

"After 26 years in Israel, I look more Israeli than Iranian, but even though I left Iran, the country is still part of me," Saidian told AFP.

The two countries are now at war. The Middle East conflict began on February 28 when Israel and the United States attacked Iran.

By Parisa Hafezi and Maya Gebeily

DUBAI/BEIRUT, March 13 (Reuters) - The leaders of Iran, Israel and the United States all voiced defiance and vowed to fight on as the Middle East war approached the two-week mark on Friday, killing thousands of people, disrupting the lives of millions of others and shaking financial markets.

March 12 (Reuters) - Rights advocates note a rise inanti-Muslim,anti-Palestinianandantisemitic hate in the United States since the start of U.S. ally Israel's war in Gaza following an October 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian Hamas militants.

The United States and Israel also launched a war against Iran on February 28.

A French soldier was killed in an attack in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday, confirming the first French military death in the Middle East war.

Since US-Israeli strikes on Iran last month engulfed the Middle East in war, multiple attacks attributed to pro-Iranian factions have targeted the region where foreign forces are based as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition.

US President Donald Trump said Thursday the war against Iran was moving "very rapidly," even as Tehran's new leader vowed defiance in his first public message.

"The situation with Iran is moving along very rapidly. It's doing very well, our military is unsurpassed," Trump said at the White House.

"They really are a nation of terror and hate, and they're paying a big price right now," added the US leader, who was attending a Women's History Month event with First Lady Melania Trump.

March 12 (Reuters) - Iran's U.N. Ambassador said on Thursday Tehran was not going to close the Strait of Hormuz, but added that it was Iran's right to preserve the security of the key shipping route.

Amir Saeid Iravani made his comments to reporters at the United Nations when asked about remarks by new Iranian supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who said on Thursday that the "lever of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must continue to be used."

JERUSALEM, March 12 (Reuters) - Israel's military on Thursday dropped charges against five soldiers accused of torturing a Palestinian detained during the Gaza war, in a case that exposed divisions within Israel over whether soldiers can abuse enemy prisoners with impunity.

The military announced the decision at a time when much of the country's attention is focused on the war with Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the decision. "The State of Israel must hunt down its enemies, not its own heroic fighters," he said in a statement.

March 12 (Reuters) - Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah on Tuesday, where the two leaders discussed regional developments, the prime minister's office said.

The meeting comes as the Middle East grapples with escalating conflict, including tensions involving Israel, the United States and Iran.