DUBAI, March 16 (Reuters) - Oil loading operations have been suspended at the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah, two sources told Reuters on Monday, after a drone attack sparked a fire in the emirate's petroleum industrial zone.

Fujairah, located on the Gulf of Oman just outside the Strait of Hormuz, is typically a critical exit point for about 1 million barrels per day of the UAE's Murban crude - a volume equivalent to roughly 1% of global demand.

DUBAI, March 16 (Reuters) - The Israeli military said on Monday it had destroyed a plane used by Iran's late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at Tehran's Mehrabad airport overnight.

It said the aircraft had been used by senior Iranian officials and military figures to travel domestically and internationally and coordinate with allied countries.

Mehrabad is one of Tehran's oldest airports, now serving domestic and regional flights. In addition to being the busiest civilian domestic airport, it is a dual-use facility housing air force assets.

President Donald Trump on Monday demanded that US allies help secure the Strait of Hormuz, but European powers pushed back on a possible mission to reopen the vital waterway shut by Iran in response to US-Israeli attacks.

Trump criticised the lukewarm response to his call for world powers to send warships to escort tankers through the strait, which normally carries a fifth of global crude oil, demanding a more enthusiastic response.

By Max Hunder and Yuliia Dysa

KYIV, March 15 (Reuters) - Ukraine wants money and technology in return for helping Middle Eastern nations that have sought its expertise as they defend against Iranian kamikaze drones, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, after Kyiv sent specialists to the region.

A French jihadist went on trial on Monday in Paris on charges of genocide, the first case in France to tackle atrocities committed against the Yazidi minority during the years-long conflict waged by the Islamic State militant group in the Middle East.

Sabri Essid is presumed to have been killed in 2018, but without proof of his death he is being tried in absentia in Paris on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and complicity in these crimes, committed between 2014 and 2016.

LONDON, March 16 (Reuters) - War in the Middle East is disrupting the flow of critical medicines to the Gulf, imperilling supply routes for cancer drugs and other treatments that require refrigeration and forcing companies to reroute flights and find overland access into the region, industry executives said.

The conflict, sparked by U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran two weeks ago and broadened by Iranian strikes around the region, has knocked out key air transit hubs and closed shipping routes, snarling the movement of goods for many products from medicines to food and oil.

Israel's President Isaac Herzog said on Monday that Europe should back his country's fight against Hezbollah, as Israeli forces carried out ground operations in Lebanon.

Lebanon's government said more than one million people have been displaced in two weeks of fighting, while Israel's defence minister warned that those who left their homes in Lebanon could not return until northern Israel was secure.

SYDNEY/KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 (Reuters) - A fifth member of the Iranian women's soccer team has withdrawn her claim for asylum in Australia, Australian media reported on Monday, and will be rejoining the rest of the squad in Malaysia.

The latest withdrawal leaves only two people of the original six players and one support staff member who sought asylum in Australia last week fearing possible persecution if they returned home. Concerns over their safety came after the players failed to sing the national anthem at a women's Asian Cup match earlier this month.

By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS, March 16 (Reuters) - The disruption to energy markets caused by the Iran war is an "abject lesson" in the risks of relying on fossil fuels, and underscores the case for governments to wean their economies off oil and gas, the U.N. climate secretary will tell EU policymakers on Monday.

While geographically far from the crisis in the Middle East, the European Union has felt its disruption through surging global energy prices. European gas prices have jumped by 50% during the two-week war.

By Tim Kelly and Jarrett Renshaw

TOKYO/PALM BEACH, Florida, March 16 (Reuters) - Japan and Australia said on Monday they were not planning to send navy vessels to the Middle East to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, after U.S. President Donald Trump called on allies to create a coalition to reopen the vital waterway.