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.

By Daphne Psaledakis and Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Thursday drew a parallel between U.S. strikes on Iran and Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor decades ago, as he defended the war against Tehran at a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in Washington.

"We wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?" Trump said when a journalist asked why he had not told allies about his war plans.

"You believe in surprise, I think much more so than us."

JERUSALEM, March 19 (Reuters) - An Iranian missile attack hit Israel's Oil Refineries in the northern port city of Haifa but did not cause "significant damage", Israel's Energy Ministry said on Thursday.

Energy Minister Eli Cohen said power was briefly disrupted, with electricity restored to most of those who were affected.

"The damage to the power grid in the north is localized and not significant," Cohen said. "Also, in the barrage towards the north, there was no significant damage to Israeli infrastructure sites."

Sarvanaz remembers celebrating Iranian new year as a girl under the bombs of the Iran-Iraq war. As Tehran is again shaken by explosions, she said marking the Nowruz festival has again taken on new meaning.

"For me, it's an obligation of being Iranian, it's our root, it's not just celebrating springtime and rebirth of the earth," the 45-year-old told AFP from Paris, where she lives now. "For me it's resistance."

The war in the Middle East has exposed Europe's reliance on Gulf companies for flights to Asia, Europe's airlines said on Thursday.

Since breaking out on February 28, the US-Israeli war on Iran has severely disrupted air traffic above the Gulf countries, which have carved out a niche as a stopover for long-haul flights between the United States, Europe, Asia and Oceania.

In the wake of Tehran's retaliatory strikes across the region, tens of thousands of flights have been cancelled, affecting millions of passengers.

US President Donald Trump said Thursday he had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to strike any more Iranian gas fields, seeking to distance himself from an attack by a key ally that has shaken world energy markets.

Trump insisted on social media overnight that he "knew nothing" about Wednesday's strike by Israel on the South Pars gas field in Iran, which retaliated to the attack by hitting Qatari energy sites.

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday said "I'm not putting troops anywhere" when asked whether he was planning to send soldiers to the Middle East region amid the Iran war.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, writing by Bhargav Acharya;Editing by David Ljunggren)

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday the U.S. needed more funding for a "lot of reasons" amid the Iran war when asked about a media report that Pentagon was seeking $200 billion for the conflict.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, writing by Bhargav Acharya;Editing by David Ljunggren)