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."
The Middle East war unleashed by US-Israeli attacks on Iran has swelled outwards to Cyprus, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Azerbaijan, and risks drawing more countries into the conflict.
The United States and Israel initiated the war by launching strikes on Iran and killing its supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday, but the war has since extended its geographical scope.
"The conflict has evolved into a high-intensity, multi-domain campaign with no immediate end in sight," the US-based Soufan Center said.
JERUSALEM, March 5 (Reuters) - Israel took the decision to kill Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in November and was planning to carry out the operation around six months later, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday.
Khamenei was killed in the first hours of the U.S.-Israeli air campaign that began on Saturday in the first assassination of a country's top ruler by an airstrike.
WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) - The United States has suspended operations at its embassy in Kuwait City, the State Department said in a statement on Thursday, amid U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran.
(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya; Writing by Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Ryan Patrick Jones)
March 5 (Reuters) - NATO has increased its alliance-wide ballistic missile defence posture following the intercept of a missile from Iran targeted at Turkey, its military headquarters said on Thursday.
The posture will remain at the heightened level until the threat from Iran's "continued, indiscriminate attacks across the region subsides," Colonel Martin O'Donnell, spokesperson for the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, said in a post on X.
O'Donnell said NATO had "perfectly executed" its missile defence in Turkey on Wednesday.
By Max Hunder
KYIV, March 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. and Qatar are in discussions with Kyiv about acquiring Ukrainian interceptor drones as a cheap alternative to down Iranian Shahed UAVs amid the war in the Gulf, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The early-stage talks are taking place between government officials, not companies, and the technology being discussed includes systems to listen out for incoming enemy drones and disrupt their communication signals, the source said.
War has emptied the usually traffic-jammed streets of Iran's capital, but Islamic republic authorities have filled them with checkpoints and security forces as they tighten their grip on the population.
After the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran on Saturday, killing its supreme leader and urging Iranians to "take over" their government, celebrations at Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's death were quickly stifled.
PARIS, March 5 (Reuters) - France will strengthen its cooperation with the Lebanese Armed Forces and provide them with armored transport vehicles as well as operational and logistical support, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, as Lebanon was pulled deeper into the war in the Middle East earlier this week.
"Everything must be done to prevent this country, which is close to France, from being dragged into war once again," Macron said in a post on X.
By Simon Lewis
WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Thursday it was ramping up the provision of charter flights from the Middle East after criticism over the Trump administration's planning and initial assistance to U.S. citizens trying to leave the regionsince the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began.
The strikes that began on Saturday and Iran's retaliatory attackson its neighbors have led to widespreadairspace closures, clogging busy aviation routes throughout the region and leaving thousands stranded.
JERUSALEM, March 5 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday called again on Israel's president to grant Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a pardon for corruption charges, saying the premier should have nothing on his mind but the war with Iran.
