President Donald Trump said Tuesday the US Navy was ready to escort oil tankers through a crucial Gulf shipping route, as he justified his war on Iran by saying he believed Tehran was about to strike first.

Trump has given often conflicting explanations for the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran, while the president who once campaigned to end to America's Middle Eastern wars has set out no firm endgame.

Iran once boasted that it controlled four Arab capitals: Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and Sanaa in an alliance dubbed the "Axis of Resistance".

But the network -- long used as a regional force against Israel -- has been weakened since the Gaza war and now risks collapse, upending the regional balance, analysts said.

"The axis of resistance is over," said Atlantic Council researcher Nicholas Blanford.

Two days after Hamas launched its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country's response would "change the Middle East".

LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday that Britain was sending helicopters with counter-drone capabilities to Cyprus, and was deploying the air defence destroyer naval vessel HMS Dragon to the region.

(Reporting by Sam Tabahriti; editing by William James)

By Ben Makori and Sam Tabahriti

LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - A British couple jailed in Iran have described explosions shaking Evin prison where they are being held and damage to their wing as the conflict intensifies around Tehran, their son told Reuters after speaking to them on Tuesday.

Joe Bennett, who is in regular contact with his mother, Lindsay Foreman, has reported worsening conditions inside the facility as bombing continues in the capital for a fourth day.

Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei's death is "historically significant" but will not "automatically" lead to the fall of the Iranian system, the widow of the country's last shah told AFP in an interview Tuesday.

"The passing of a man -- however central he may be to the architecture of power -- does not automatically mean the end of a system," said Farah Pahlavi, three days after US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic killed Khamenei.

Governments and airlines scrambled Tuesday to repatriate tens of thousands of travellers stranded in the Middle East following the eruption of a regional conflict sparked by Israel-US strikes on Iran.

Countries across the region shut their airspace as Iran retaliated against US allies, Qatar saying it had blocked an attack on its airport, one of the major hubs in the region.

BEIJING, March 3 (Reuters) - China opposes the military strikes launched by Israel and the U.S. against Iran and demands an immediate cessation of hostilities, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar on Tuesday, according to his ministry.

"Force cannot truly solve problems; instead, it often creates new ones and leaves serious long-term consequences. The real value of military power lies not on the battlefield but in preventing war," it quoted Wang as telling Saar in a call.

By Parisa Hafezi

DUBAI, March 3 (Reuters) - Terrified residents of Iran's capital described it as a ghost town on Tuesday, its streets largely emptied by a U.S.-Israeli missile barrage apart from security checkpoints and Revolutionary Guards patrols that rove the city.

The airstrikes have killed hundreds of Iranians since Saturday while Israeli and U.S. leaders have voiced hopes they would trigger an uprising, but Reuters found no evidence one was imminent in phone conversations with people around the country.

By Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) - The United States on Tuesday said it was pulling out non-essential personnel from several U.S. missions across the Middle East and advised American citizens to immediately leave the region even as air travel remains severely disrupted due to U.S.-Israeli military operation on Iran.

March 3 (Reuters) - Commercial flights across parts of the Middle East have been grounded due to the escalating conflict after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, stranding foreign nationals and prompting governments to consider repatriation.

Below is what governments and officials have said about repatriation plans, in alphabetical order by country:AUSTRALIA

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia was in discussions with airlines to help Australians stranded in the Middle East, but that evacuations would be difficult while much of the region's airspace remains closed.