By Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The State Department is pulling out non-essential government personnel and their eligible family members from the U.S. embassy in Beirut, a senior State Department official said on Monday, amid growing concerns about the risk of a military conflict with Iran.

"We continuously assess the security environment, and based on our latest review, we determined it prudent to reduce our footprint to essential personnel," said a senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

By Elwely Elwelly

DUBAI, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Iranian students defied authorities with protests for a third day on Monday, weeks after security forces crushed mass unrest with thousands killed and as the United States weighs possible air strikes against the Islamic Republic.

State media outlets reported students chanting anti-government slogans at Tehran University, burning flags at the all-women al-Zahra University, and scuffles at Amir Kabir University, all located in the capital.

Iran's deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi warned of a wider escalation if his country was attacked, after US President Donald Trump raised the threat of strikes.

Trump has sent a major deployment of air and sea power to the Middle East and has threatened to strike Iran if it does not reach a deal on key concerns starting with its nuclear programme.

"We call upon all nations committed to peace and justice to take meaningful steps to prevent further escalation," Gharibabadi said at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

The leading candidate to become Iraq's next prime minister, former premier Nouri al-Maliki, told AFP on Monday that he will not withdraw his nomination after pressure from the US, while also seeking to allay Washington's concerns.

Since the US-led invasion that overthrew former ruler Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraqi leaders have struggled to find a balance between two global powers competing for influence in the country: neighbour Iran and its arch-rival the United States.

ISLAMABAD/ KABUL, Feb 23 (Reuters) - At least 13 civilians were killed and seven injured in Pakistani airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan, the United Nations said on Monday, as cross-border tensions escalated following a string of suicide bombings in Pakistan.

The reported toll adds to fears of a renewed cycle of retaliation between the neighbours, threatening a fragile ceasefire along their 2,600-km (1,600-mile) frontier and further straining ties as both sides trade blame over militant violence.

LISBON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - A surge in U.S. aircraft activity at the Lajes air base in the Azores is covered by a decades-old bilateral treaty and does not require authorisation from Lisbon, Portugal's foreign minister said on Monday.

The country's left-wing opposition has called on the centre-right government to explain the legal basis behind the increase in U.S. military flights and to clarify whether Lisbon had given approval.

LONDON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Britain's populist Reform UK party unveiled "radical" plans on Monday to stop what it called an immigration "invasion", promising to create an agency to deport thousands of illegal migrants and to leave human rights treaties if it wins power.

With Reform ahead in opinion polls before an election due no later than August 2029, the party led by Brexit veteran campaigner Nigel Farage is ramping up policy announcements to try to convince Britain it is ready to govern.

Israeli settlers attempted to set fire to a mosque in the occupied West Bank village of Tell early Monday, the Palestinian Authority's ministry of religious affairs said.

"The Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs condemned the attempt by a group of settlers to set fire to a part of the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Mosque in the village of Tell, near Nablus, and the writing of racist slogans on its walls", the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry noted an increase in attacks on mosques in the West Bank, totalling 45 in 2025.

Feb 23 (Reuters) - Iraq's foreign minister said on Monday Turkey had agreed to take back Turkish citizens from among thousands of Islamic State detainees transferred to Iraq from Syria when camps and prisons there were shut in recent weeks.

Iraq took in the detainees in an operation arranged with the United States after Kurdish forces retreated and shut down camps and prisons which had housed Islamic State suspects for nearly a decade.

The US forces that led the coalition against the Islamic State group will complete their withdrawal from Syria within a month, three sources told AFP on Monday, as troops began leaving a major base.

The withdrawal comes as Syria's government has expanded its control to the country's northeast, previously controlled by US-allied Kurdish forces, and formally joined the coalition against IS.