France is sending its flagship aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean in response to the widening conflict in the Middle East, President Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday.
"I have ordered the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, its air assets, and its escort of frigates to set course for the Mediterranean," he said in a televised speech a day after he warned of the risk of the conflict spilling over Europe's borders.
By Patricia Zengerle, Michael Martina and David Morgan
WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's top national security advisers were to spend much of the day on Tuesday making the case to members of Congress for the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, as Democrats and some of his fellow Republicans clamored for more information.
PARIS, March 3 (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said France was sending its aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to the Mediterranean and working to build a coalition that would help secure maritime traffic imperiledby the escalating crisis in the Middle East.
In a televised address to the nation, Macron said that action needed to be taken with the Straits of Hormuz closed and the Suez Canal and Red Sea shipping routes threatened by the widening conflict.
By David Lawder and Victoria Waldersee
WASHINGTON/MADRID, March 3 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the United States would cut off all trade with Spain after the European country refused to let the U.S. military use its bases for missions linked to strikes on Iran.
"Spain has been terrible," Trump told reporters during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, adding that he had told Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to "cut off all dealings" with Spain.
By Feras Dalatey , Timour Azhari, Laila Bassam and Mahmoud Hassano
DAMASCUS/BEIRUT, March 3 (Reuters) - Syria has reinforced its border with Lebanon with rocket units and thousands of troops, eight Syrian and Lebanese sources said on Tuesday, as conflict spread in the region including between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The sources included five Syrian military officers, a Syrian security official and two Lebanese security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Pentagon's policy chief on Tuesday distanced the United States from the death of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying he was killed by an Israeli strike.
Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Elbridge Colby said the strike that killed Khamenei and other senior Iranian leaders was not part of the American military campaign.
"Those are Israeli operations," Colby said, pushing back when pressed by lawmakers about whether regime change was an objective of US action.
Iran's slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will be buried in the holy city of Mashhad, the Fars news agency said Tuesday.
Khamenei, who led the country for 36 years, was killed at 86 during a wave of US-Israeli attacks on Saturday.
He was originally from Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city, where his father is buried at the Imam Reza shrine.
Before the burial, a "large farewell ceremony" will be held in Tehran, the Revolutionary Guards said on their Telegram account.
No date for the burial was disclosed.
By Andrew Osborn
MOSCOW, March 3 (Reuters) - When President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, some Russian hardliners were cautiously optimistic, hoping his unpredictability and transactional nature might benefit Moscow on Ukraine.
But his attack on Iran means many now see him as a growing threat to Russia itself and are questioning if Trump is the pragmatic, potentially pro-Moscow strongman ready to deal in realpolitik that they thought he was.
By Ted Hesson, Susan Heavey and David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during congressional testimony on Tuesday stood by her remarks calling the acts of two U.S. citizens shot dead by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis "domestic terrorism."
Noem, who is overseeing Republican President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, was pressed about her statements by Democrats and some Republicansduring a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
By Federico Maccioni, Lucy Craymer and Rachna Uppal
DUBAI, March 3 (Reuters) - As Middle East tensions rise ever higher, tens of thousands of people are finding themselves stranded across the Gulf with few options for leaving a region suddenly engulfed by war.
