How long will the Iran war last and what are the US goals? President Donald Trump has issued a dizzying number of conflicting answers to these questions since launching the conflict three weeks ago.

The stakes have risen as Iran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes across the Gulf after the United States and Israel started their attacks on February 28.

Here, in Trump's own words, are his shifting positions:

- Duration of the war -

March 1: "Well, we intended four to five weeks." (To the New York Times)

The surge in fuel prices triggered by the war in the Middle East has prompted countries to take measures to limit the financial impact on consumers and businesses.

Countries have also moved to reduce consumption, especially when they have limited reserves.

Here are some of the measures that have been adopted:

- Tax cuts and aid -

Some countries are targeting the price of fuel in order to limit the impact of the rise of crude oil prices on consumers and businesses.

Britain is sending short-range air defence systems to the Gulf to help counter Iranian missile attacks, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday.

"We're deploying short range air defence systems to Bahrain at speed," Starmer told a parliamentary committee, adding the UK was "doing the same with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia".

The UK is working with industry to "distribute air defence missiles to Gulf partners", which have faced waves of Iranian barrages in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes, and has embedded airspace specialists there, Starmer said.

Iran has not updated its official death toll figures for weeks, while human rights groups outside the country are struggling with chronic communication problems, meaning the number of people killed during the war remains largely unknown.

The last time Iran's health ministry gave a full update about casualties was on March 8, the ninth day of the conflict, when it said around 1,200 civilians had been killed in US and Israeli airstrikes across the country.

A series of strikes hit Beirut's southern suburbs on Monday and early Tuesday, the first attack on the Hezbollah stronghold in days, as Israel's military said it captured two members of the Iran-backed group in southern Lebanon.

An earlier Israeli strike hit the upscale, predominantly Christian area of Hazmieh near Beirut, with Israel saying it targeted a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' foreign operations arm.

WASHINGTON, March 23 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Monday told reporters the United States has held talks with Iran and that the two sides had "major points of agreement."

Trump said the conversations that took place on Sunday would to continue on Monday and that if the negotiations continued productively, there would be a deal very soon.

Trump added that his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner held the talks.

By Tamar Uriel-Beeri and Maya Gebeily

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT, March 23 (Reuters) - Israel should extend its border with Lebanon up to the Litani River deep inside the country's south, Israel's finance minister said on Monday as Israeli troops bombed bridges and destroyed homes in the area in an escalating military assault.

The comments by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich were the most explicit yet by a senior Israeli official on seizing Lebanese territory in a fight Israel says targets Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.

President Donald Trump said Monday that "regime change" was underway in Iran as the United States holds peace talks with an unidentified alternative leader.

Trump's surprise announcement to reporters in Florida was short on detail about whom the US side had contacted, but he said it was "not the supreme leader," Mojtaba Khamenei.

He described the unidentified negotiator as "a top person" and "the most respected and the leader."

VATICAN CITY, March 23 (Reuters) - Pope Leo sharply criticised aerial bombardments on Monday, saying they are indiscriminate and should be banned, in his latest anti-war comments as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran enters its fourth week.

Leo, the first U.S. pope, did not specifically mention the expanding conflict in a meeting with executives and staff from Italy's ITA Airways, but he strongly decried the use of airpower in warfare.

"No one should have to fear that threats of death and destruction might come from the sky," said the pope.

LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) - British police said on Monday an attack on Jewish community ambulances in north London was not being treated as a terrorist incident but the investigation would be led by counter terrorism officers.

"While this has not been declared a terrorist incident at this stage, the investigation is now being led by counter terrorism policing, with all the specialist expertise they bring and all lines of inquiry remain open," Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams said.