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War in the Middle East: latest developments

Here are the latest events in the Middle East war on Monday:

- Zelensky says tapped for help -

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that 11 countries had tapped Kyiv for help on how to counter Iranian drones, being launched by Tehran across the Middle East.

Ukraine touts itself as having world-class drone defence capabilities, built up through fending off nightly barrages of Iran-style attack drones launched by Russia.

- NATO blocks missile in Turkey -

A woman holds a picture of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei (R) and his late father Ali Khamenei

Trump praises Italy PM Meloni's willingness to help in U.S.-Israel war with Iran

ROME, March 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump praised Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and said she was willing to help the United States and Israel in their war with Iran, Italy’s Corriere della Sera reported on Sunday.

Speaking to the newspaper in a telephone call on Saturday, Trump described Meloni as “a great leader” and said Italy was doing what it could to assist.

* "I love Italy, I think she is a great leader," Trump was quoted as saying of Meloni.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni shake hands as they pose for a photo, at a world leaders' summit on ending the Gaza war, amid a U.S.-brokered prisoner-hostage swap and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett/Pool/ File Photo

Iran says can fight for months as Israel strikes Beirut hotel

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Sunday that the country's forces could fight an intense war for six months against the United States and Israel, which said it struck Tehran's commanders at a seaside hotel in the heart of Beirut.

As the conflict spilled into its second week, the regional repercussions spiralled, with Saudi Arabia intercepting a wave of drones headed for targets including the diplomatic quarter in capital Riyadh and Kuwait saying an attack hit fuel tanks at its international airport.

Iran's president says that Tehran will be forced to respond if its neighbours attacked

Sri Lanka hospital releases 22 rescued from torpedoed Iranian vessel

Sri Lanka discharged 22 Iranian crew from hospital who were plucked from life rafts after their warship was sunk by a US submarine, officials said Sunday.

The crew had been treated at Karapitiya Hospital in the southern port city of Galle since Wednesday after the IRIS Dena was torpedoed just outside Sri Lanka's territorial waters.

The attack on Dena was the first military strike far outside the Middle East since the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran a week ago.

A handout photograph taken March 4 and released by the Sri Lankan President's Office shows Sri Lankan navy personnel evacuating rescued Iranian sailors from the Dena

Trump rejects settling Iran war, raises prospect of killing all its potential leaders

By Maya Gebeily, Alexander Cornwell, Nandita Bose and Parisa Hafezi

BEIRUT/MIAMI/TEL AVIV/DUBAI, March 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said he is not interested in negotiating with Iran and raised the possibility that the Iran war would only end once Tehran no longer has a functioning military or any remaining leadership in power.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday, Trump said the air campaign could make negotiations a moot point if all potential leaders of Iran are killed and the Iranian military is destroyed.

Australia weighing requests for assistance from countries attacked by Iran

SYDNEY, March 8 (Reuters) - Australia's government said on Sunday it was considering requests to help protect countries attacked by Iran in the widening Middle East conflict, but reiterated it would not take part in any military operations in Iran.

"We've had many countries, which are non participants, (that) have been attacked by Iran through this. You would anticipate as a consequence that we have been asked for assistance, and we will work through that carefully," Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in televised remarks.

People way the sunset over Dubai, with a general view of the Dubai skyline, including Burj Khalifa, center, amid the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 6, 2026. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky

Kuwait airport, Bahrain desalination unit struck as Iran presses Gulf attacks

Iran struck Gulf infrastructure Sunday, hitting fuel tanks at Kuwait's airport and a desalination plant in Bahrain, with at least four reported dead in the region as Tehran pressed its campaign there into a second week.

In Saudi Arabia, the civil defence said a "military projectile" killed two people -- an Indian and a Bangladeshi -- and injured 12 others after it fell in a residential area in Al-Kharj governorate south of Riyadh.

Footage authenticated by AFP recorded the sound of a drone then a loud explosion and plumes of smoke

Why have 1,000 ships at times lost their GPS in the Mideast?

The global positioning system (GPS) capabilities of cargo ships, oil tankers and other vessels stuck in the Middle East because of the widening war are likely worse than those in your cell phone.

Experts say this deficiency explains why since the start of US-Israeli strikes, the jamming of satellite navigation signals has left about 1,000 ships in the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman unable to determine their location, either momentarily or continuously.

A tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane for oil

Israel strikes Beirut hotel as Lebanon says war toll nears 400

Israel struck a hotel in central Beirut on Sunday, the first attack on the city centre since the start of the new war with Hezbollah, as Lebanon said nearly 400 people were killed over the past week.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on Monday, when Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during US-Israeli strikes.

First responders at the Beirut hotel hit in an air strike