By Abir Ahmar and Federico Maccioni

DUBAI, March 6 (Reuters) - When Samuel Lait launched his private flights firm focused on pet travel in Dubai on Saturday, he was expecting to receive queries from owners looking to travel with their pets between the glitzy Gulf hub and the United Kingdom.

BRUSSELS, March 6 (Reuters) - EU leaders Antonio Costa and Ursula von der Leyen will hold a video conference with Middle Eastern leaders on Monday to discuss the situation in the region, a spokesperson for Costa said on Friday.

"This exchange will provide an opportunity to hear leaders' assessments of the situation and to discuss further support from the EU and its member states to countries in the region, as well as ways to bring the current conflict to an end," the spokesperson said.

By Antonio Bronic

KARLOVAC, Croatia March 6 (Reuters) - Croatia is set to resume mandatory military service for the first time in 17 years as part of the European Union member's broader strategy to address security concerns in Europe and the Western Balkans.

On Monday, 800 recruits will start two-month basic training in military compounds across the country.

Croatia amended its defence law last October to introduce mandatory service in line with European trends and as tensions with Russia spurred calls for stronger defence capabilities across Europe.

In the lobby of a vocational school packed with hundreds of people, Zeinab Moqdad, who fled Beirut's southern suburbs, rages at a new war between Hezbollah and Israel whose consequences she is once again forced to bear.

"It's a nightmare. To be safe at home and then suddenly have to flee... only those who've lived it can know what it's like," she said.

"It’s a war that’s been forced on us… We can’t do anything."

WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday there would be no deal struck with Iran except "unconditional surrender."

(Reporting by Bhargav Acharya; editing by Susan Heavey)

By John Davison

BAGHDAD, March 6 (Reuters) - Iran has spent decades and billions of dollars preparing foreign proxy fighters like A.J., a commander in a pro-Iranian paramilitary group in Iraq, for a moment just like this. Since the U.S. and Israel went to war on the Islamic Republic a week ago, A.J. has been awaiting marching orders from Tehran.

MUNICH, March 6 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday called for Iran's territorial integrity to be preserved as the war against Tehran initiated by Israel and the United States last week threatens to expand across the Middle East.

Merz said that the collapse of Iranian statehood or proxy conflicts fought on Iranian soil were not in anyone's interest.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Friday that "loyal cooperation" should prevail over "confrontation" in relations with the United States after tensions over Madrid's opposition to Washington's use of its bases against Iran.

Relations should take place "with respect, in a spirit of loyal cooperation and on an equal footing", he added during a news conference with Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro in the southern Spanish city of Huelva.

A US submarine this week torpedoing an Iranian warship during the Middle East conflict raised the crucial question of who controls the seas during wartime.

The sinking of IRIS Dena on Wednesday in international waters off the coast of Sri Lanka killed at least 86 crew members, in what Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi labelled an "atrocity".

It came after US-Israeli strikes on Iran on Saturday triggered war in the Middle East, with the Islamic republic launching retaliatory attacks across the region and beyond.

The US Navy had not torpedoed a ship since 1945.

By Emma Farge

GENEVA, March 6 (Reuters) - The World Health Organization said on Friday that medical supplies in Gaza were running critically low despite Israel's reopening of a key crossing this week.

Supplies of some items such as gauze and needles have already run out, said WHO's regional director Hanan Balkhy, citing information from the Health Ministry in Gaza, devastated by the two-year Israel-Hamas war.

"Stocks of essential medicines, trauma supplies and surgical consumables are critically low, and fuel shortages continue to limit hospital operations," she said.