By Gram Slattery and Humeyra Pamuk

ANKARA, July 8 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the U.S. would grant Ukraine a license to manufacture Patriot missile interceptors, a huge boost for Kyiv, which has long sought permission to produce the defensive weapons.

"We're going to give a license to you to make Patriots. That's pretty cool. This way, you can't complain that we're not giving 'em enough," Trump said at a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the NATO summit in Ankara.

By Humeyra Pamuk and David Latona

ANKARA/MADRID, July 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered an immediate halt to all trade with NATO ally Spain, escalatingtensions over defence spending and the Iran war, despite European Union rules requiring trade negotiations to be conducted as a single bloc.

July 8 (Reuters) - The White House has defended its handling of Iran's visa restrictions during the World Cup, with top official Andrew Giuliani saying the team's decision to base themselves in Tijuana, Mexico, instead of Tucson was mutually beneficial.

Giuliani, Executive Director of the White House Task Force for the World Cup, said the cross-border logistics worked smoothly for all parties despite Iran's complaints during the group stage and after they were knocked out of the tournament.

By Gram Slattery, Bo Erickson and Steve Holland

ANKARA/WASHINGTON, July 8 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday informed his Syrian counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa that he had decided to remove the country from the U.S. list of designated state sponsors of terrorism.

"I promised to remove all barriers stopping you from rebuilding your country, and very soon, you will finally be able to do so," Trump wrote in a letter to Sharaa seen by Reuters.

WASHINGTON, July 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. military is conducting fresh strikes on Iran, the U.S. Central Command said on Wednesday, hours after President Donald Trump declared that an interim agreement to end the war with Iran was "over."

It said the strikes were aimed at degrading Iran's ability to threaten freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

"The United States is holding Iran accountable for recent unjustified aggression against commercial shipping and civilian crews freely navigating a vital international waterway," U.S. Central Command wrote in a post on X.

(Fixes dateline)

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) July 8 - Mourners marched through Iraq's holy city of Najaf on Wednesday, following the coffin of slain Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as his six-day funeral procession, which drew huge crowds in his home country, pressed on across the border.

People carrying large portraits of the late leader gathered along the route and chanted "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" as Khamenei's coffin was driven on a large truck through the streets.

ANKARA, July 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he did not think a full-fledged conflict with Iran would erupt in the wake of military strikes from both sides.

"I don't think it's going to start again. I think it's going to go very quickly. They hit a couple of ships, and so we hit them much harder," Trump told reporters in Ankara after a NATO summit.

"Anything that happens is going to be over very quickly ... and will only make it safer, including for oil," he said.