ANKARA, May 11 (Reuters) - Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will visit Qatar on Tuesday for talks on the Iran war, its impact on the Gulf and efforts to ensure navigational safety in the Strait of Hormuz, a Turkish diplomatic source said on Monday.

NATO member Turkey, which neighbours Iran, has been in close contact with the United States, Iran and mediator Pakistan since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. It has called for an end to the conflict, while condemning attacks on Iran and criticising Tehran's strikes on Gulf states as unacceptable.

President Donald Trump warned the ceasefire in the Middle East war was on "life support" Monday after rejecting the latest counteroffer from Iran, which said its military stood ready to respond to any act of aggression.

The president's angry reaction to Iran's position -- delivered in response to a US proposal -- sparked a spike in oil prices and dashed hopes that a deal could be quickly negotiated to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping.

Iranian authorities on Monday hanged a post-graduate student from an elite Tehran university on charges of espionage, the latest in a spate of executions against the backdrop of the war against the United States and Israel.

Erfan Shakourzadeh, 29, was hanged after being convicted for collaborating with the CIA and Mossad, the Iranian judiciary's Mizan Online website said.

BEIJING, May 11 (Reuters) - China voiced strong opposition on Monday to U.S. sanctions for three China-based companies that Washington claimed enabled Iran's military operations, calling the curbs illegal and unilateral.

"We have always required Chinese enterprises to conduct business in accordance with laws and regulations, and will firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises," spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a regular press briefing.

By Kyu-seok Shim

SEOUL, May 11 (Reuters) - South Korea's presidential Blue House on Monday condemned in the strongest terms an attack against a cargo ship operated by a Korean shipper this month in the Strait of Hormuz and said it plans to respond once the source of the attack is identified.

Experts conducted an initial forensic analysis of the damage to the port stern, a Blue House official said. The attack had led to a fire in the vessel's engine room.

By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU, May 11 (Reuters) - A minor fire broke out on a tyre of a Turkish Airlines plane after it landed on Monday in Nepal's capital of Kathmandu, authorities said, forcing the closure of the airport for an hour.

All 277 passengers and 11 crew on the Airbus A330 arriving from Istanbul were evacuated using the emergency exits following the fire, and nobody was injured, Gyanendra Bhul, a Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal spokesperson, told Reuters.

Seated at a table draped in a floral plastic cover inside his prefabricated home, Meir Goldmintz says he is finally fulfilling a dream he has carried for two decades: "returning to Sa-Nur".

The tiny settlement, perched above Palestinian villages in the northern Israeli-occupied West Bank, was dismantled in 2005 along with three other Jewish settlements in the area, as well as all the settlements in the Gaza Strip during Israel's withdrawal from the territory.

By Nayera Abdallah, Elwely Elwelly and Idrees Ali

DUBAI/WASHINGTON, May 11 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's swift rejection of Iran's response to a U.S. peace proposal sent oil prices surging higher on Monday amid concerns the 10-week-old conflict will drag on, keeping shipping through the Strait of Hormuz paralyzed.

Conflicts in the Middle East are increasing dangers for whales off South Africa by shifting sea traffic into their habitats and heightening the risks of collision, researchers told AFP.

The rerouting of shipping around South Africa and away from the Red Sea and Suez Canal since late 2023 has "substantially increased" the chances of ship strikes, they said in new research.

May 10 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hopes to wean Israel off U.S. military support within a decade as his country pushes to strengthen ties with Gulf states, he said in an interview that aired on Sunday.

"I want to draw down to zero the American financial support, the financial component of the military cooperation that we have," Netanyahu told CBS News' "60 Minutes" program.

Israel receives about $3.8 billion of U.S. military aid a year, he said. The U.S. has agreed to provide a total of $38 billion in military aid to Israel from 2018to 2028.