WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers on Tuesday that the Trump administration does not want to force Afghans currently stranded in Qatar to return to Afghanistan and has spoken with at least five countries who are open to receiving them.

More than 1,100 people have been held at the former U.S. Army base Camp As Sayliyah (CAS) since at least early last year, when Republican President Donald Trump's administrationhalted resettlement for Afghans who feared retribution from Taliban authorities for their links to the U.S. military.

WASHINGTON, June 2 (Reuters) - Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday there has been no change in U.S. policy on Taiwan and that Washington wants to see the status quo preserved.

"The most important thing to understand is we want to see the status quo preserved as-is at this moment. That's our policy, that's what we've said, that's what we continue to say," Rubio said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

"It's a very ... delicate relationship to balance, but our policy on Taiwan is not changing," Rubio said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday expressed hope that a deal to end the war in Iran was in the cards, stressing that Tehran must severely curtail its nuclear program before any sanctions are lifted.

"There is the prospect before us, which could happen today, it could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week," Rubio told a Congressional panel.

In a south Lebanon hospital heavily damaged by deadly Israeli strikes nearby, Dr Nasser al-Masri held a new-born baby, calling him "a message of life and hope" despite the war.

Israeli strikes near the Jabal Amel hospital in Tyre on Monday killed four people and wounded 127, including four doctors, 27 nurses, and eight administrative employees, Lebanon's health ministry said.

They also caused "severe and extensive damage" to the facility, it added.

Even if the Middle East war stopped immediately, disrupted global humanitarian supply lines would not recover before 2027, the United Nations said Tuesday.

Nearly 100 days on from the February 28 US-Israeli attacks on Iran that triggered the conflict, the fall-out extends far beyond the Middle East region, said Jean-Cedric Meeus, chief of global transport and logistics for the UN children's agency UNICEF.

GENEVA, June 2 (Reuters) - Surging global transport costs and supply chain disruptions linked to the Middle East crisis are threatening the delivery of lifesaving aid to children, the U.N. children's agency warned on Tuesday.

Nearly 100 days after the outbreak of the Iran war, heightened insecurity around key Gulf shipping routes has driven up fuel prices and insurance premiums, while congestion at alternative ports has compounded disruptions, hampering aid deliveries.

• U.N. children's agency UNICEF said it was increasingly relying on air freight due to shipping delays.

Iran's football team will leave for Spain this weekend en route to their World Cup base in Mexico despite still awaiting visas, the head of the country's football federation said.

The 2026 World Cup is being hosted jointly by the United States, Mexico and Canada.

Neither the United States, where Iran will play their three group stage matches, nor Mexico, where the team will be based throughout the tournament, have yet issued visas for the players.

By Alexander Cornwell

TEL AVIV, June 2 (Reuters) - Benjamin Netanyahu is under criticism at home after U.S. President Donald Trump declared Israel would halt plans to attack Iran ally Hezbollah in Beirut, highlighting pressure the Israeli leader faces ahead of an election polls show him losing.

Trump said on Monday that Israel and Hezbollah had agreed to halt attacks on one another, hours after Netanyahu ordered new strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, prompting a warning from Iran that Israel was jeopardizing Tehran's talks with the U.S.

By Maya Gebeily and Steven Scheer

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, June 2 (Reuters) - Israel kept up strikes on southern Lebanon on Tuesday, pressing its campaign against Hezbollah a day after U.S. President Donald Trump asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to attack Beirut, averting further escalation in the three-month-old war.

Following Trump's intervention, Lebanon's government said Israel would refrain from carrying out threatened strikes on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, while the group would halt attacks against Israel.

By Jana Choukeir

DUBAI, June 2 (Reuters) - Iran is reviewing a proposed agreement with the United States to halt the war between the two countries, Iran's Mehr news reported on Tuesday, after U.S. President Donald Trump said talks to reach a deal were continuing.

More than three months after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes against Iran, the conflict has hardened into a stalemate while largely indirect talks to negotiate an interim deal have proved inconclusive, leaving the Strait of Hormuz largely shut.