WASHINGTON, March 9 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Monday that he was "nowhere near" deciding whether to send U.S. troops into Iran to secure the stockpile of highly enriched uranium there.

"We haven’t made any decision on that. We’re nowhere near it,” Trump told the New York Post when asked about reported discussions between Israel and the United States on possibly deploying special forces to Iran to seize and secure the material.

WASHINGTON, March 9 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is considering whether to designate Afghanistan as a state sponsor of wrongful detention and could act as soon as Monday, according to a source familiar with the matter.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis, editing by David Ljunggren)

WASHINGTON, March 9 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Monday said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told him five members of the Iranian national women's soccer team had been "taken care of" amid fears they could be punished.

Australia's SBS News earlier said five players had "broken free" after the team was eliminated from the Asian Cup tournament and were now under the protection of the federal police, seeking assistance from the government.

March 9 (Reuters) - Israel's U.N. ambassador Danny Danon said on Monday that the new supreme leader of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei, has the same radical ideas as in the past and Israel will target anyone who promotes radical ideas against it.

"Changing the man at the top does not change the regime," Danon told reporters at the United Nations when asked about Iran's naming of Khamenei to replace his father Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the war the U.S. and Israel launched against Iran at the end of last month.

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, March 9 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva called on Monday for a de-escalation of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran and a return to negotiations.

Oil prices have surged as some major producers cut supplies ​and stock markets have gone into a nosedive since the war began on February 28, and Iran has fired on Gulf states that host U.S. military bases, causing travel and business disruptions.

BEIJING, March 9 (Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday called for a ceasefire in the Gulf region as soon as possible, stressing that the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Gulf countries should be fully respected, according to statements from his ministry.

Wang made the remarks in a phone call with his Kuwaiti counterpart Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah on Monday as Iran answered a U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign with strikes around the Gulf region.

Here are the latest events in the Middle East war:

- 'Empty' threats -

Iran's security chief Ali Larijani brushed off threats by US President Donald Trump to hit the Islamic republic harder if the flow of oil stops through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

"Iran is not afraid of your empty threats. Even those greater than you could not eliminate the Iranian nation. Take care of yourself not to be eliminated!" he wrote in a post on X.

- Fresh Tehran strikes -

The United Arab Emirates decried Monday that it was being targeted "in a very unwarranted manner" in the Middle East war, stressing it would "not partake in any attacks against Iran".

"The UAE does not seek to be drawn into conflict or escalation," said Jamal Al Musharakh, the UAE's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.

At 10:56 pm an alert announcing the approach of an Iranian missile sounds, and a brief, heart-pounding wait begins in the operations room at Magen David Adom (MDA) as first responders get ready to deploy.

In this nerve centre for Israel's equivalent of the Red Cross, three floors underground in Ramla, near Tel Aviv, a paramedic adjusts her helmet then picks up the phone to dispatch her colleagues: four debris impact sites have just been reported.

All eyes are fixed on screens displaying the number of calls to 101, the number for the national emergency response organisation.

WASHINGTON, March 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Australia was "making a terrible humanitarian mistake" by allowing Iran's national women's soccer team to be sent back to Iran and called on Australia's prime minister to give asylum to team members.

(Reporting by Katharine Jackson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)