March 19 (Reuters) - Russia issued a fresh call on Thursday for an end to hostilities in the Gulf, starting with a halt to U.S. and Israeli attacks, and made a new offer to use its diplomatic leverage to help end the fighting.
"We call for the fastest possible cessation of hostilities, which resulted from the unprovoked aggression of the U.S. and Israel," the foreign ministry said in a statement on its website.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that it "takes money to kill bad guys" when asked if the Pentagon had requested $200 billion in funding for the Iran war.
Exactly how much the war has cost so far has yet to be publicly disclosed, and the final bill will depend on how long the US-Israeli campaign against Iran launched on February 28 lasts.
But it could be substantial: The Pentagon's comptroller reportedly told lawmakers that the first six days of the war had cost $11.3 billion.
PARIS, March 19 (Reuters) - France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot will go to Israel on Friday, in an unscheduled visit, after visiting Beirut as part of efforts to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon.
The French foreign ministry added, as it announced Barrot's visit, that Barrot would discuss with Israeli authorities regional security and humanitarian aid issues, and attempts to de-escalate the conflicts in the Middle East.
(Reporting by John Irish;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
By Patricia Zengerle and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. military's request for $200 billion in additional funding for the Iran war met with stiff opposition in the U.S. Congress on Thursday, as Democrats and even some Republicans questioned the need for the money after large defense appropriations last year.
A U.S. official confirmed a Washington Post report that the Department of Defense has asked the White House to approve a more than $200 billion request to Congress to fund the war in Iran.
JERUSALEM, March 19 (Reuters) - Iran no longer has the capacity to enrich uranium or make ballistic missiles after 20 days of U.S.-Israeli air attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a news conference on Thursday.
"We are winning, and Iran is being decimated," Netanyahu said, noting that Iran's missile and drone arsenal is being massively degraded and will be destroyed.
"What we're destroying now are the factories that produce the components to make these missiles and to make the nuclear weapons that they're trying to produce," Netanyahu said.
A Yazidi woman who was held as a sex slave by the Islamic State group testified Thursday before a French court, describing in stark detail the horrors she endured under jihadist captivity.
The 32-year-old spoke in a Paris tribunal as part of the trial of French jihadist Sabri Essid, who is being prosecuted in absentia on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and complicity in these crimes.
It is the first case in France to address atrocities committed against the Yazidi minority during the IS campaign in the Middle East.
By Jason Lange
WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - Some 65% of Americans believe U.S. President Donald Trump will order troops into a large-scale ground war in Iran but only 7% support the idea, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Thursday.
Aziza Ahmad hasn't planned anything -- no family meal, no gifts for the children. In Lebanon, between the war and soaring prices, she said "there's nothing to celebrate" this Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan.
From Beirut to Dubai, Manama to Jerusalem, the holy month of fasting is ending on a bitter note for millions of Muslims unsettled by the Middle East war.
The small, run-down apartment where Ahmad, 49, lives with her husband and three sons is currently home to 12 people.
LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) - Countries at the UN’s shipping agency agreed to work towards a safe maritime corridor to evacuate commercial ships from the Gulf to protect seafarers during the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
In an extraordinary session to discuss the Middle East, the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) governing council agreed to encourage the establishment of a framework to facilitate the safe evacuation of merchant ships from high-risk and affected areas.
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's parliament speaker and a veteran of the Revolutionary Guards, has emerged as the highest-profile political figure in the Islamic republic after the killing of its leaders.
A pillar of the Iranian establishment for some three decades and one of the Islamic republic's most prominent non-clerical figures, Ghalibaf, 64, now appears to be playing a key role spearheading the war effort.
