By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, March 3 (Reuters) - Iran's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva on Tuesday ruled out for now any negotiations with the United States, three days after the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on his country.

Explosions rocked Tehran again on Tuesday, and financial markets around the world tumbled amid fears of a prolonged disruption to global energy supplies. U.S. President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have given open-ended answers when asked how long the war might last.

By Renee Maltezou

ATHENS, March 3 (Reuters) - Greece's shipping minister on Tuesday called for the protection of global shipping and seafarers, amid an "alarming" situation that has left dozens of ships stranded in the Strait of Hormuz and the wider area due to the widening Iran conflict.

March 3 (Reuters) - Iran's ongoing conflict with the U.S.and Israel has led to sporting events being postponed in several countries, while competitions elsewhere have been hit by travel disruption, with thousands of flights cancelled in some of the world's busiest transit hubs.

PLAYER ARRIVALS AT PARALYMPIC GAMES DISRUPTED

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) said it is working to find solutions after several athletes were finding it difficult to travel to the Milano Cortina Winter Paralympic Games due to travel disruptions in several Middle Eastern airports.

By Emma Farge

GENEVA, March 3 (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands more children face acute malnutrition in Afghanistan this year amid a hunger crisis exacerbated by foreign aid cuts and violence on the border with Pakistan, a U.N. official said on Tuesday.

International aid to Afghanistan has fallen sharply since 2021, when U.S.-led forces exited the country and the Taliban regained power. The crisis has been compounded by natural calamities including earthquakes.

The war in the Middle East triggered by US and Israeli strikes on Iran has raised the question of whether the Iranian national team will take part in the World Cup later this year, during which it is due to play group games in the United States.

- What is Iran's position? -

The possibility of a boycott of the World Cup has been raised in Iran.

Tehran feels like a ghost town, with residents who have not fled remaining shut away in their homes for fear of new explosions from the US-Israeli bombardment.

"I'm afraid to walk in the deserted streets because bombs are still falling from the sky," said Samireh, a 33-year-old nurse, who did not want to give her family name.

The Iranian capital is normally home to some 10 million people, but in recent days "there are so few people that you'd think no one ever lived here", she added.

JERUSALEM, March 3 (Reuters) - Israel's military on Tuesday reported strikes in the Tel Aviv area of Israel from Iranian missiles.

"Search and rescue forces, together with numerous emergency teams, are currently operating at the impact sites in central Israel," the military said. "The circumstances of the impact are under review."

Israel's ambulance service said it was treating three people at the sites who were lightly injured.

Israeli police said there were several impact areas involving munition fragments within the Tel Aviv district.

By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM, March 3 (Reuters) - Israeli authorities are using container ships to bring back dozens of essential medical staff stuck abroad after the air war with Iran broke out on Saturday, disrupting travel, according to Israel's cargo firm ZIM Shipping.

A ZIM official told Reuters on Tuesday that its cargo ships were shuttling between Limassol in Cyprus and the Israeli port of Haifa, in an operation coordinated between the Transportation Ministry, major Israeli hospitals and the company.

By William Schomberg and David Milliken

LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - British finance minister Rachel Reeves said she would provide stability for the economy in a budget update speech on Tuesday that contained no big policy surprises and was overshadowed by alarm among investors over the conflict in the Middle East.

Reeves said fresh forecasts showed inflation and borrowing would be lower than previously thought by Britain's fiscal watchdog, although its economic growth projection for this year was cut to 1.1% from a previous estimate of 1.4%.

By Samia Nakhoul

DUBAI, March 3 (Reuters) - Iranian airstrikes on Gulf states could push them into a broad coalition aligned with the United States and widen the war against Iran, Middle East analysts said, after attacks on ports, cities and oil facilities in a vital energy-producing region.

By striking at the Gulf’s economic lifelines in its response to U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran, Tehran may be driving wary Gulf states closer to Washington and towards coordinated action against the Islamic Republic, the analysts said.