MOSCOW, March 3 (Reuters) - The Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran is under threat as a result of the escalating conflict, the head of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said on Tuesday, according to the RIA state news agency.

"There is certainly a threat to the plant," Likhachev was cited as saying. "Explosions can be heard just kilometres away", he added, saying the plant itself was not being targeted.

By Maya Gebeily, Alexander Cornwell and Jana Choukeir

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, March 3 (Reuters) - Lebanon was pulled deeper into the war in the Middle East on Tuesday as the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah launched missiles at Israel for a second consecutive day and Israel sent troops into the south and carried out waves of air strikes.

Israel's neighbour to the north and the theatre of numerous conflicts between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon had avoided spillover from the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran until Monday, when Hezbollah opened fire with drones and missiles.

LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - Britain is planning to send a warship to defend its Royal Air Force Akrotiri base in Cyprus from Iranian attacks, the Times newspaper said on Tuesday.

An Iranian-made drone strike hit a runway at the Akrotiri base in the early hours of Monday, and Britain has said UK assets were targeted by Iran.

The Times report, citing three sources, said defence minister John Healey had a meeting on Tuesday with senior military figures, in which they discussed sending HMS Duncan to the region.

ANKARA, March 3 (Reuters) - Turkey is engaging with all parties to find a way to end the war in Iran and return to negotiations, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said, adding that Ankara was also in talks with Oman on the matter as the Gulf nation works for the same goal.

The United States and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. The war quickly widened with Tehran striking Gulf states that host U.S. bases and Israel attacking Iranian-backed Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

By Tamiyuki Kihara, Ben Blanchard, Tim Kelly and Praveen Menon

TOKYO/TAIPEI/SYDNEY, March 3 (Reuters) - Japanese lawmakers reeling from attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel gathered on Monday at the ruling party's offices in Tokyo to question bureaucrats about evacuation plans, energy stocks and the legal basis for U.S. action.

But one query posed at the closed-door meeting, described to Reuters by a politician who attended, reflected a deeper fear haunting Asia's corridors of power since Trump's weekend attacks unleashed chaos in the Middle East.

By Mike Stone, David Jeans and Joey Roulette

March 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. successfully debuted a low‑cost suicide drone in combat in Iran just eight months after its Pentagon unveiling, as the U.S. pushes to accelerate weapons programs.

The Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS) drone, manufactured by Arizona's SpektreWorks, was showcased in July 2025 when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth walked the Pentagon's inner courtyard with more than a dozen companies competing to supply the military with new equipment.

MOSCOW, March 3 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin will convey to Iran concerns among Arab leaders about Tehran's strikes on oil infrastructure in the region, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, as the Iran conflict continued to widen.

Putin held a flurry of phone calls on Monday with four Arab Gulf state leaders, offering to use Moscow's ties to Tehran - with which it has a strategic partnership - to try and defuse tensions in the region.

GENEVA, March 3 (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights office urged the "forces" behind an attack on a girls' school in Iran to investigate and share insights into the "horrific" incident, without naming them.

"The High Commissioner (Volker Turk) calls for a prompt, impartial and thorough investigation into the circumstances of the attack. The onus is on the forces that carried out the attack to investigate it," U.N. human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a Geneva press briefing, describing the incident as "horrific".

MOSCOW, March 3 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow had still seen no evidence that Iran was developing nuclear weapons as the U.S. and Israel pursue their attack.

U.S. President Donald Trump has offered various reasons for going to war with Iran. On Monday, in his most extensive public comments so far, he said he had ordered the attack to thwart Tehran's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

By Emma Farge

GENEVA, March 3 (Reuters) - A key aid crossing that had been momentarily closed into Gaza will reopen imminently, the United Nations World Food Programme said on Tuesday.

Humanitarian supplies will be able to enter through the Kerem Shalom crossing into the enclave between Tuesday and Wednesday, the WFP said.

"That is timely for us, and we need to get in aid as fast as we can," Samer Abdel Jaber, WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Cairo.