WASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) - No ships have made it past a U.S. naval blockade of Iran's ports and coastal areas, and six merchant ships have followed orders to turn back, the U.S. military said on Tuesday, providing the first details on a day-old effort ordered by President Donald Trump after peace talks between the U.S. and Iran broke down.

The U.S. military has said that the blockade, which started on Monday, would only apply to ships going to or from Iran, including all Iranian ports on the Gulf and Gulf of Oman.

WASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Iran talks could resume in Pakistan over the next two days, according to an interview with the New York Post.

"You should stay there, really, because something could be happening over the next two days, and we're more inclined to go there," Trump was quoted as saying.

Trump said Pakistan's Army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, was doing a "great job" on the talks.

"He's fantastic, and therefore it's more likely that we go back there," Trump said.

The United States and Israel may have obstructed the path towards a future Iran-built nuclear bomb by severely damaging the Islamic republic's nuclear and ballistic capabilities in recent attacks.

But they have not succeeded in seizing its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, key to any future negotiations between Washington and Tehran, experts and diplomatic sources told AFP.

Direct talks between Israel and Lebanon concluded in Washington on Tuesday, with Israel's envoy hailing a "wonderful exchange" and saying the two countries are "on the same side" in opposing Iran-backed Hezbollah.

"We enjoyed it together. We had a wonderful exchange of over two hours," Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter told reporters following the talks.

"We discovered today that we're on the same side," he said, adding: "We are both united in liberating Lebanon from (an) occupation power dominated by Iran called Hezbollah."

ROME, April 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump told an Italian newspaper on Tuesday he was "shocked" by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and had expected her to be more courageous, delivering a blunt public rebuke to one of his closest European allies.

Meloni had been a vociferous supporter of Trump, but she has criticised his decision to go to war with Iran, and on Monday, denounced his weekend criticism of Pope Leo as "unacceptable".

WASHINGTON, April 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that China had been an unreliable global partner during the Middle East war by hoarding oil supplies and limiting exports of certain goods, much as they hoarded medical supplies during the pandemic.

Bessent told reporters he had spoken with Chinese officials about the issue. He dodged a question about whether the dispute would derail U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to visit Beijing at the end of the month, but said Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping had a very good working relationship.

ANKARA, April 14 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told Hungarian election winner Peter Magyar in a phone call on Tuesday that he believed Turkey-Hungary ties would progress further as he congratulated him on his victory, the Turkish presidency said.

In a statement, the presidency said Erdogan also told Magyar he wanted to deepen the strategic partnership between the NATO allies.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Alison Williams)

By Joshua McElwee

ANNABA, Algeria, April 14 (Reuters) - Pope Leo warned of the risk of democracies sliding into "majoritarian tyranny" on Tuesday, in a letter issued by the Vatican two days after U.S. President Donald Trump attacked the pontiff on social media.

The first U.S. pope, writing to participants of a Vatican meeting about the use of power in democratic societies, said democracies remained healthy only when they were rooted in moral values.

Gaza's civil defence agency said on Tuesday four people, one of them a toddler, were killed in an Israeli strike in the northern part of the Palestinian territory.

Violence continues to grip the war-torn Gaza Strip despite a ceasefire which came into effect on October 10, with both Israel and Hamas regularly accusing each other of violations.

The IMF cut its 2026 global growth projection Tuesday, warning that the world economy could be "thrown off course" by war in the Middle East -- as the conflict roils commodity markets and sparks higher prices.

The global economy is set to grow by 3.1 percent this year, said the International Monetary Fund in its World Economic Outlook report, released during its spring meetings in Washington.