KYIV, March 26 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that he had arrived in Saudi Arabia and would hold "important meetings".

"Arrived in Saudi Arabia. Important meetings are scheduled. We appreciate the support and support those who are ready to work with us to ensure security," he wrote on X.

(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Writing by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Daniel Flynn)

WASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Thursday urged Iran to make a deal to end U.S. and Israeli bombing or face more strikes on their country.

"They now have the chance, that is Iran, to permanently abandon their nuclear ambitions and to join a new path forward," Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. "We'll see if they want to do it. If they don't, we're their worst nightmare. In the meantime, we'll just keep blowing them away."

Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Blasts in Tehran -

Warplanes could be heard overhead in northern districts of Tehran, shortly before three loud explosions rang out, an AFP correspondent in the Iranian capital said.

The blasts were heard after dark, during rain, and it was not immediately possible to identify what had been hit.

- Iraq condemns targeting Gulf, Jordan -

US President Donald Trump denied being "desperate" to make a deal with Iran Thursday, as he mixed threats with diplomacy in a push to wrap up his war in the Middle East.

Holding his first cabinet meeting since the start of the joint US-Israeli operation, Trump insisted that Iran was being "beat to shit" and was "begging" for a deal, despite Tehran's denials.

But Trump rejected reports that he was looking for an exit ramp, as oil prices soar and political pressure mounts to avoid the kind of drawn-out Middle East war he once spurned.

DUBAI, March 26 (Reuters) - Iran’s initial response to the U.S. proposal to end the war, which was conveyed to Pakistan, was that it was "one-sided and unfair", a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Thursday, adding that a path forward might still be found if realism prevailed in Washington.

The official said the proposal "was reviewed in detail on Wednesday night by senior Iranian officials and the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader".

For a decade or more, "America First" has been a rallying cry against foreign wars. But as US bombs fall on Iran, many of President Donald Trump's supporters are embracing a muscular campaign abroad -- and insisting it still fits the doctrine.

On the opening day of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the Dallas suburbs, attendees framed the conflict not as a departure from Trump's worldview, but as its natural extension.

Hunched against the cold and drizzle, Iraqi army medic Ahmed and two colleagues looked across the wreckage that just days ago was their clinic, now rubble after a strike on Wednesday.

"We're the only ones left of the medical unit," he said, his voice breaking with grief.

"They were all either killed or wounded."

Iraq has been drawn into the war sparked by US and Israeli strikes against Iran on February 28, which has since engulfed much of the region.

Diplomatic efforts to end the Iran war are gathering pace, even though Tehran continues to insist talks with the United States are not happening.

Here is what we know about the behind-the-scenes mediation efforts:

- What is on the table? -

After announcing "very good" talks with an unnamed "top person" in Iran on Monday, Trump said Tuesday that he had sent a plan and that it "all starts with, they cannot have a nuclear weapon".

PARIS, March 26 (Reuters) - The European Unions is worried about Ukraine being pressured by the United States into ceding territory in negotiations with Russia, the EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Thursday.

"This is clearly a wrongapproach. It is, of course, the Russian playbook of negotiations, that they are demanding something that has never been theirs, and that's why we are also flagging that this is the trap that we should not walk into," Kallas said on the sidelines of a G7 meeting in France.

Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah on Thursday claimed casualties on both sides as Lebanon said it would complain to the United Nations Security Council over Israeli attacks.

In a sign of divisions, Lebanese ministers from Hezbollah and its ally Amal boycotted a cabinet session over the government decision this week to declare the Iranian ambassador persona non grata, as demonstrators rallied in support of Iran outside its embassy in Beirut.