By Andrea Shalal
March 23 (Reuters) - Moscow's shipment of modernized drones to Iran made Russian drone production sites legitimate military targets, a top Ukrainian diplomat said on Monday, urging Western powers to equip Ukraine with weapons capable of hitting those sites.
March 23 (Reuters) - The Trump administration is quietly weighing Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, as a potential partner, and even a future leader, Politico reported on Monday, citing two administration officials.
Ghalibaf is seen by at least some in the White House as a workable partner who could lead Iran and negotiate with the Trump administration in the war's next phase, the report said.
(Reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Porter)
International markets and the world at large have grown used to US President Donald Trump's abrupt reversals, but Monday's about-face on Iran was one of his most spectacular yet.
Since returning to power last year, Trump has openly embraced governing "by instinct."
On the Mideast conflict, he has made a flurry of contradictory statements about goals and the timeline, and even declared on March 13 that the war would end when he "felt it in his bones."
Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war:
- Iran arrests -
Iranian authorities said that 466 people have been arrested, accused of seeking to destabilise the country through their online activity.
The exact nature of the online activity nor the dates of the arrests were provided. Internet has been shut down in Iran since the start of the war on February 28.
- New Iran chief -
By John Irish
PARIS, March 23 (Reuters) - Bahrain has put forward a draft United Nations Security Council resolution that would authorise countries to use "all necessary means" - diplomatic language for force - to protect commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, according to a text seen by Reuters on Monday.
Diplomats said the draft text was backed by other Gulf Arab states and the United States, although they said it was unlikely to succeed.
By Erin Banco, Gram Slattery and Maayan Lubell
WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM, March 23 (Reuters) - Less than 48 hours before the U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran began, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone to President Donald Trump about the reasons for launching the kind of complex, far-off war the American leader once had campaigned against.
BRUSSELS, March 23 (Reuters) - Soldiers were deployed on the streets of leading Belgian citieson Monday to bolster security for the Jewish community, after what officials said were antisemitic attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands.
The move follows an explosionthis month at a synagogue in Liege that authorities called an antisemitic act.
“From today we're putting soldiers back on the streets in Brussels and Antwerp because safety is a basic right,” Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken said in a post on X on Monday.
The world has given Israel "a licence to torture Palestinians", a UN expert said Monday, with life in the occupied territories "a continuum of physical and mental suffering".
Francesca Albanese, the UN's special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, alleged that "torture has effectively become state policy" in Israel.
March 23 (Reuters) - Iran's veteran supreme leader and a host of other top figures and Revolutionary Guards commanders have been killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes but the ruling system has maintained its ability to strategise and operate in the war that began on February 28.
Born from a 1979 revolution, the Islamic Republic built a complex power structure with layered institutions buttressed by a shared commitment to the survival of the theocratic system rather than relying on a small number of individuals.
March 23 (Reuters) - Ukraine's military intelligence has "irrefutable" evidence that Russia continues to provide intelligence to Iran, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after meeting the head of military intelligence.
"Russia is using its own signals intelligence and electronic intelligence capabilities, as well as part of the data obtained through cooperation with partners in the Middle East," he said on X.
