TAMPA, Florida, March 5 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday the United States was not expanding its military objectives in Iran, after President Donald Trump told Reuters that the United States must be involved in choosing the next leader of Iran.

The Pentagon earlier this week said the military campaign, known as Operation Epic Fury, is focused on destroying Iran's offensive missiles, missile production and Navy, while not allowing Tehran to have a nuclear weapon.

WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Thursday said Tehran was reaching out to the United States about making a deal amid U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, adding that further action to reduce pressure on oil was imminent.

"They're calling, they're saying 'how do we make a deal?' I said you're being a little bit late," said Trump, speaking at an event with the Inter Miami soccer team at the White House.

When the United States fought the 1991 Gulf War, president George H.W. Bush boasted of building a broad coalition unseen in decades. When his son attacked Iraq in 2003, he faced wide criticism but secured several steadfast US allies.

Now, a generation later, President Donald Trump has attacked Iran, and he is barely even trying to make friends.

Trump launched the war alongside Israel, which had long pressed the United States to strike Iran's ruling clerics.

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives rejected an effort on Thursday to stop President Donald Trump's air war on Iran and require that any hostilities against Iran be authorized by Congress, backing the Republican president's military campaign on the sixth day of the expanding conflict.

The vote was 219 to 212, largely along party lines, in the House, where Trump's fellow Republicans control a narrow majority of seats. Two Republicans voted in favor of the resolution and four Democrats voted against it.

March 5 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he wants to finish the war in Iran first, but then it "will be just a question of time before you and a lot of unbelievable people are going to be going back to Cuba."

Trump, speaking at an event with the Inter Miami soccer team at the White House, said Cuba wants "to make a deal so badly."

"We want to finish this one first," he said, referring to the conflict in Iran.

(Reporting by Bo Erickson; Writing by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Daphne Psaledakis)

By Feras Dalatey

DAMASCUS, March 5 (Reuters) - Syria has opened a newly reactivated air corridor from the northern city of Aleppo toward the Mediterranean Sea for use by foreign airlines as well as its national carrier, the head of the country’s Civil Aviation Authority told Reuters on Thursday, as air traffic gradually resumes through Aleppo International Airport.

KYIV, March 5 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that Ukraine would provide assistance to the U.S. in response to its request for help in dealing with Iranian drones in the Middle East.

Tehran has fired hundreds of drones at U.S. targets in neighboring countries after the U.S. and Israel began a massive campaign of air strikes against Iran on Saturday.

During its war with Russia, Ukraine has developed highly effective means of downing the Iranian-designed Shahed kamikaze drone, which Moscow has been using for much of the four-year war.

The latest Iranian missile barrage sparked a wave of explosions across Tel Aviv as firefighters worked to contain a blaze at a residential building near Israel's commercial hub on Friday.

The blasts came after Israel expanded its campaign against Hezbollah, vowing retribution against the Tehran-backed militant group for joining the conflict following the killing on Saturday of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

MADRID, March 5 (Reuters) - The Middle East conflict will have "immediate repercussions" for European Union security with an increased threat of terrorism, serious and organised crime as well as violent extremism and cyberattacks, European police body Europol told Spanish news agency EFE on Thursday.

ZURICH, March 5 (Reuters) - Iran is seeking to escalate the conflict in the Middle East by attacking other countries in the region indiscriminately, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Thursday.

"Iran is an exporter of war," Kallas told reporters at a press conference with Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis during a visit to Zurich. "Right now, the regime tries to drag as many countries into this war as possible."