By Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON, March 17 (Reuters) - President Donald Trumpon Tuesday said he was postponing a highly anticipated trip to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping as the war with Iran upends U.S. foreign policy and delays an effort to ease tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.

"We are resetting the meeting ... We're working with China. They were fine with it," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

By Feras Dalatey , Maya Gebeily and Timour Azhari

DAMASCUS, March 17 (Reuters) - The United States has encouraged Syria to consider sending forces into eastern Lebanon to help disarm Hezbollah, but Damascus is reluctant to embark on such a mission for fear of being sucked into the war in the Middle East and inflaming sectarian tensions, five people briefed onthe matter said.

US President Donald Trump lashed out Tuesday at "foolish" NATO over Iran, saying the United States needs no help after allies rebuffed his calls to join efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump said most US allies had rejected his push to escort ships through the crucial waterway, with French President Emmanuel Macron saying his country would "never" do so until the situation was calmer.

"I think NATO is making a very foolish mistake," Trump told reporters as he hosted Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in the Oval Office.

ANKARA, March 17 (Reuters) - Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan reiterated that Turkey is ready to host the next round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, during a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday, Turkey's foreign ministry said.

Fidan underlined the risks posed by the prolonged war for both regional countries and the international order, while the ministers also addressed issues related to energy security, according to the ministry.

March 17 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the U.S. had been informed by most of its NATO allies that they did not want to get involved with the country's military operation in Iran.

"Because of the fact that we have had such Military Success, we no longer 'need,' or desire, the NATO Countries’ assistance — WE NEVER DID!" Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, also singling out Japan, Australia and South Korea.

(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya and Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto;Editing by David Ljunggren)

BERLIN, March 17 (Reuters) - More than 36,000 Palestinians in the West Bank were forcibly displaced over a year by Israeli settlement expansion and associated violence, the U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday.

The United Nations said in a report covering 12 months to October 31, 2025, that Israel had accelerated the annexation of large parts of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The report cites monitoring and information gathering by the U.N.'s regional office, government sources and NGOs as its sources.

By Dan Peleschuk

March 17 (Reuters) - Streaking across the sky with a terrifying wail, a Ukrainian-made quadrocopter swerves with unlikely agility for a device resembling a winged lava lamp.

Once a long-shot concept, the interceptor drone developed by private firm Wild Hornets is now key to Ukraine's defence against Russian drones - and soon, possibly, to combatting Iranian ones in the Gulf.

By Daria Sito-Sucic

SARAJEVO, March 17 (Reuters) - Slovenia's prime minister on Tuesday accused "foreign services" of interfering in Sunday's election after a report alleged officials from Israeli private spy firm Black Cube visited the country in December and met the main opposition contender.

PARIS, March 17 (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron said France would never take part in operations to unblock the Strait of Hormuz, and that France was carrying on with work to prepare a coalition that could provide freedom of navigation once hostilities ended.

"We are not party to the conflict and therefore France will never take part in operations to open or liberate the Strait of Hormuz in the current context," Macron said at the start of a cabinet meeting to discuss the conflicts in the Middle East.

MEXICO CITY, March 17 (Reuters) - Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Tuesday that her country would have no problem hosting Iran's matches in the 2026 World Cup, if soccer governing body FIFA agrees.

Iran's football federation has asked FIFA to move their World Cup matches to Mexico from the United States due to concerns about the safety of their players after the U.S. launched joint air strikes at the country.

(Reporting by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Raul Cortes; Editing by Kylie Madry)