A US fighter jet shot down an Iranian drone that approached an American aircraft carrier in the Middle East on Tuesday, Washington said, as renewed tensions on the high seas overshadowed plans for nuclear talks.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that US envoy Steve Witkoff is still expected "to have conversations with the Iranians late this week," despite the incident.

Dubai, Feb 3 (Reuters) - The Middle East does not need another confrontation between the U.S. and Iran, and Tehran needs to reach a nuclear deal with Washington, Anwar Gargash, the diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said at a World Governments Summit panel in Dubai.

"I think that the region has gone through variouscalamitous confrontations. I don't think we need another one, but I would like to see direct Iranian-American negotiations leading to understandings that we don't have these issues every other day," he said.

MOSCOW, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Russia is ready for the new reality of a world with no nuclear arms control limits after the New START treaty expires later this week, Russia's point man for arms control said on Tuesday.

Unless Moscow and Washington reach a last-minute bilateral understanding of some kind, the New START treaty, signed in 2010 by U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, will expire on February 5.

DUBAI, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Talks with the U.S. should be pursued to secure national interests as long as "threats and unreasonable expectations" are avoided, President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on X on Tuesday.

"Taking into account demands from friendly regional countries to respond to the U.S. President's suggestion for talks, I instructed the foreign minister to prepare the ground for equitable and fair negotiations ... should an atmosphere free of threats and unreasonable expectations arise," Pezeshkian said.

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Tom Hogue)

DAKAR, Feb 2 (Reuters) - The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Congo will send its first team to monitor a ceasefire between Congo’s government and the AFC/M23 rebel group in the coming days, Qatar’s foreign ministry said on Monday after hosting talks in Doha.

Qatar said the team would be deployed to Uvira, a strategic city in eastern Congo that AFC/M23 fighters captured in December during a rapid offensive, and which Congolese forces and allied militias re‑entered last month, restoring government control after the rebels announced they would withdraw.

Feb 2 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that talks with Iran were ongoing amid high tensions.

"We have ships heading to Iran right now, big ones ... and we have talks going on with Iran," Trump told reporters at the White House. "We'll see how it works out."

(Reporting by Steve Holland, Writing by Christian Martinez, editing by Michelle Nichols)

By Alexander Dziadosz, Marine Delrue and Maria Paula Laguna

CAIRO, Feb 2 (Reuters) - The deployment of a powerful model of Turkish combat drone to a remote airstrip on Egypt’s southwestern border signals a sharp escalation in Sudan’s civil war, suggesting one of its largest neighbours is being drawn deeper into the fray, more than a dozen officials and regional experts say.

By Parisa Hafezi

DUBAI, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Iran’s leadership is increasingly worried a U.S. strike could break its grip on power by driving an already enraged public back onto the streets, following a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests, according to six current and former officials.

KYIV, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Russia has largely observed a ceasefire on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday as Kyiv prepared for the next round of trilateral talks on how to end the war.

Zelenskiy said that Russia has not carried out any targeted missile or drone strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in the last 24 hours although energy facilities in frontline areas have come under fire.

Israel's ban on Doctors Without Borders' humanitarian operation in Gaza spells deeper catastrophe for the Palestinian territory's people, the head of the medical charity told AFP on Monday.

Israel announced on Sunday that it was terminating all the activities in Gaza and the West Bank by the organisation, known by its French acronym MSF, after it failed to provide a list of its Palestinian staff.

MSF slammed the move, which takes effect on March 1, as a "pretext" to obstruct aid.