By Lucy Craymer and Justyna Pawlak

DUBAI/DOHA, March 2 (Reuters) - In the lobby of a tired hotel near Doha airport, stranded travellers wear identical fake Adidas T-shirts bought from a nearby store and swap tips on where to buy underwear.

"It’s our uniform,” said Erika Macikova.

The 49-year-old Slovak winemaker was returning from an ayurvedic retreat in Sri Lanka when she became stranded in the Qatari capital. Her luggage remains at the airport, but she was evacuated to a hotel alongside hundreds of other passengers.

The outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East has seen maritime insurers cancel coverage, adding to the risk shipping companies face.

Many insurers now refuse to offer war risk coverage for the Gulf, a key hub for global oil trade, as the war pitting Iran against the United States and Israel drags on.

"We have been receiving coverage cancellations from certain insurers since yesterday morning," Gilles Legue, the head maritime insurer in France for the broker Marsh, told AFP.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Monday for Israel to re-open Gaza border crossings it closed after launching the war against Iran along with the United States.

Among the crossings shut down on Saturday as a security measure is the Rafah conduit -- the only gateway for Gazans to the outside world that does not pass through Israel.

It had reopened for the movement of people on February 2, nearly two years after Israeli forces seized control of it during the war with Hamas.

By Federico Maccioni and Tim Hepher

DUBAI/PARIS, March 2 (Reuters) - Escalating conflict in the Middle East has laid bare how heavily global air travel relies on a handful of hubs led by Dubai, the world’s busiest international airport, after the shutdown of Gulf airspace rippled quickly across airline networks worldwide.

Four decades after the Gulf's trading capital set out to exploit its strategic location by setting up Emirates with two rented jets and two routes, Dubai stands at the centre of a global network spanning 110 nations and 454,000 flights a year.

BRUSSELS, March 2 (Reuters) - NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Monday praised U.S. and Israeli military action against Iran, saying it was degrading Tehran's ability to get its hands on nuclear and ballistic missile capability, but he said NATO itself would not be involved.

"It's really important what the U.S. is doing here, together with Israel, because it is taking out, degrading the capacity of Iran to get its hands on nuclear capability, the ballistic missile capability," he told Germany's ARD television in Brussels.

The US Congress is scheduled to vote this week on motions seeking to curb President Donald Trump as he wages war against Iran, but the Republican majority will probably shield him.

Trump has sought to expand executive power drastically since returning to the White House in 2025, overshadowing the legislature.

So some lawmakers now want to reassert the role of Congress, which under the US constitution is the only body that can declare war.

GENEVA, March 2 (Reuters) - Switzerland said on Monday thatits diplomatic channel between the United States and Iran has remained active since the U.S.-Israeli air war against Iran began on February 28.

"It is available to both parties and operates in both directions," the Swiss foreign ministry said in an email to Reuters, without providing details.

Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution when Washington and Tehran cut ties, Switzerland has had a mandate of a neutral "protecting power" representing U.S. diplomatic interests in Iran.

ANKARA, March 2 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan criticised attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel as a "clear violation" of interntional law on Monday, adding that Turkey shared the pain of the Iranian people.

Speaking at a Ramadan fast-breaking dinner in Ankara, Erdogan said Turkey would intensify its contacts at all levels until a ceasefire was reached and calm achieved in the region, adding the continuation of the conflict carried serious risks for the region and the world that nobody could handle.

An extended conflict in the Middle East after the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran could trigger global stagflation -- a troublesome blend of high inflation and anaemic growth -- due to spiking oil and gas prices, economists warned.

- Will there be an oil shock ? -

The conflict has nearly halted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20 percent of global seaborne oil passes, with several ships attacked.

WASHINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he ordered the U.S. military to attack Iran to thwart Tehran's nuclear program and a ballistic missile program that he said was growing rapidly.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; eduiting by David Ljunggren)