Israel struck south Lebanon on Saturday despite a ceasefire as Hezbollah said its backer Tehran had pledged not to abandon the militant group.

Hezbollah said its chief Naim Qassem had received a message from Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, saying the latest proposal through Pakistani mediators aimed at ending the regional war emphasised "the demand to include Lebanon" in the broader ceasefire.

Lebanese authorities, however, have insisted the country's ongoing talks with Israel under US auspices must be independent from the Iran-US negotiations.

ISTANBUL, May 23 (Reuters) - Turkish police detained 13 people under an investigation into a 2023 congress of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), state media said on Saturday, after a court ruling this week ousted the party's leader Ozgur Ozel, inflaming a political crisis.

A Turkish appeals court on Thursday annulled the congress, at which Ozel was elected, citing unspecified irregularities. In his place, the court reinstated former CHP Chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu, a divisive figure who lost to President Tayyip Erdogan in elections earlier that year.

By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump may have won just about every battle against Iran, but three months after attacking the Islamic Republic he now faces a bigger question: Is he losing the war?

With Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz, its resistance to nuclear concessions and its theocratic government largely intact, doubts are growing that Trump can translate the U.S. military’s tactical successes into an outcome he can frame convincingly as a geopolitical win.

May 23 (Reuters) - U.S. arms sales to Taiwan take years to process and are unrelated to the war with Iran, a source familiar with the matter said, after a senior U.S. official suggested there was a pause due to the need to have enough arms for the conflict.

Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has been waiting for the U.S. to approve an arms sale that Reuters has reported could be worth up to $14 billion.

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON, May 22 (Reuters) - Twenty-seven countries have moved since the Iran war started to put in place crisis instruments that could quickly access funding from existing World Bank programs, according to an internal document viewed by Reuters.

The World Bank document did not name the countries or the total amount of funds potentially being sought. The World Bank declined to comment.

The United States is weighing new military strikes on Iran, US media outlets reported on Friday.

The reports, from CBS and Axios, come just hours after US President Donald Trump said he would not travel to attend his son's wedding this weekend due to "circumstances pertaining to government" and his "love for the United States of America."

Trump said that it was "important for me to remain in Washington, D.C., at the White House during this important period of time."

Both Axios and CBS said that a final decision on new strikes hasn't been made.

By Nate Raymond

May 22 (Reuters) - A lawyer for Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil vowed on Friday to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court after a federal appeals court declined to reconsider a ruling that opened the door to President Donald Trump's administration re-arresting and deporting the pro-Palestinian activist.

Several French pro-Palestinian activists on Friday described what they said was a violent and humiliating ordeal after they were detained by Israeli forces on a Gaza-bound flotilla.

Eight French nationals arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris from Turkey on Friday afternoon, to supporters shouting "Long live the struggle of the Palestinian people".

Two of the 36 French people who were on board the flotilla were still in hospital in Turkey, the returnees told awaiting reporters.

US President Donald Trump confirmed Friday he would miss his son's wedding, insisting he had to stay in Washington because of "circumstances pertaining to government."

Trump had said a day earlier that the Iran war made it "bad timing" for him to attend Donald Trump Jr's wedding to Bettina Anderson in the Bahamas this weekend.

Tehran accused the United States of "excessive demands", Iranian media said on Saturday, as US media reports raised the prospect that Washington was mulling new strikes and leaders of the Islamic republic considered the latest peace proposal.

Pakistan's powerful army chief arrived in Tehran on Friday to bolster mediation and US President Donald Trump abruptly changed his plans to skip his son's wedding to stay in Washington due to "circumstances pertaining to government", fuelling speculation that the situation had entered a sensitive stage.