STOCKHOLM, March 18 (Reuters) - Iran executed a Swedish citizen on Wednesday, Sweden's foreign minister said, adding that she had summoned the Iranian ambassador in Stockholm to condemn the decision.

The person, who was not named, was arrested in Iran in June of last year and Sweden has repeatedly raised the case with Iranian officials, Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said.

"The death penalty is an inhumane, cruel and irreversible punishment. Sweden, together with the rest of the EU, condemns its application in all circumstances," Stenergard said.

NEW YORK, March 18 (Reuters) - Syria on Wednesday launched a plan supported by Washington to rid the Middle Eastern country of legacy chemical weapons that were used against its people by forces under ousted leader Bashar al-Assad.

For decades, Assad ran a large-scale program for chemical weapons, the use of which killed and injured thousands during Syria's long-running civil war.

Despite Damascus' signing onto the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013 and declaring a 1,300-tonstockpile, prohibited use continued and the size of the program remains unclear.

LONDON, March 18 (Reuters) - Britain said it was working to provide more support for its partners in the Gulf who are under attack from Iran, as it announced plans to buy extra missiles to protect the region.

Britain's fighter jets and other forces have been helping shoot down Iranian drones, and one of its warships is heading to the eastern Mediterranean, although the government has been criticised for not being able to send it sooner.

Since the 1979 revolution, Iran has taken steps to ensure it is not reliant on a single security force but rather multiple structures to defend the Islamic republic against external and internal threats.

All these forces have been mobilised since the start of the war between Iran and the United States and Israel, which began on February 28 with the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and has seen the deaths of several key security officials.

By Daren Butler

ISTANBUL, March 18 (Reuters) - Thousands of Turks gathered in central Istanbul on Wednesday in support of jailed mayor Ekrem Imamoglu at an opposition rally, one year after President Tayyip Erdogan’s main rival was arrested on corruption charges.

Supporters waving red party banners and Turkish flags gathered at city hall for the rallyby Imamoglu’s party, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which has been the target of an unprecedented judicial crackdown since late 2024.

By Pesha Magid

EILON, Israel, March 18 (Reuters) - Israel has more than doubled the number of troops along its border with Lebanon since March 1 and they are searching homes in southern Lebanese villages that the military has ordered evacuated, a senior Israeli commander said on Wednesday.

As Israeli warplanes pound Beirut in operations against Hezbollah that have become the deadliest spillover of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, heavy smoke could be seen rising from villages in southern Lebanon as troops fired artillery across the border.

By Andreas Rinke, Ludwig Burger and John Irish

BERLIN/PARIS, March 18 (Reuters) - For a self-described Transatlanticist like German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the language has been unusually blunt.

When President Donald Trump asked countries to join a global effort against Iran and deploy ships to prise open the Strait of Hormuz, whose near closure has held the global economy in a vice, he was rebuffed by some of America's closest allies.

Through one conflict after another, herders in Iraqi Kurdistan have grazed their animals under the endless blue skies of the Zagros Mountains -- a lifestyle they are stoically trying to maintain as yet another war engulfs the region.

Since the beginning of the US and Israeli campaign against Iran, the Zagros range, which separates the northern autonomous region from the Islamic republic some 50 kilometres (31 miles) away, has been regularly targeted by Iranian drone and missile strikes.

Just a trickle of cargo ships and tankers has made it through the Strait of Hormuz since Iranian forces blocked the crucial trade route in the Middle East war.

Here are facts and figures about vessels that have passed through the 167-kilometre (104-mile) strait since the war broke out with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

- Shipping near zero -

The channel typically sees around 120 daily transits, according to shipping industry intelligence site Lloyd's List.

By Joshua McElwee

ROME, March 18 (Reuters) - The Vatican's top diplomat on Wednesday called on U.S. President Donald Trump to end the expanding Iran war as soon as possible and suggested Israel should also stop its strikes against Lebanon.

"I would say to finish it as soon as possible ... and to leave alone Lebanon," Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, a senior advisor to the American Pope Leo, said in an unusually direct appeal.

"This message goes also to the Israelis," he added, speaking to journalists at an event at the Italian parliament.