By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Dmitry Medvedev, a senior Kremlin security official, said in remarks released for publication on Monday that the world was getting very dangerous, but that Russia did not want a global conflict.

Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine triggered the biggest confrontation between the West and Moscow since the depths of the Cold War, though U.S. President Donald Trump's envoys are trying to negotiate an end to the war with Russia and Ukraine.

Feb 1 (Reuters) - The top U.S. and Israeli generals held talks at the Pentagon on Friday amid soaring tensions with Iran, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The officials did not offer details about the closed-door discussions between U.S. General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Eyal Zamir, the Israeli armed forces chief of staff. The meeting has not been previously reported.

KYIV, Feb 1 (Reuters) - A new round of U.S.-brokered trilateral talks between Ukraine and Russia will take place in Abu Dhabi on Feb. 4 and 5, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday, adding that Kyiv was ready for a "substantive discussion".

"Our negotiating team has just delivered a report. The dates for the next trilateral meetings have been set – February 4 and 5 in Abu Dhabi," he wrote on X.

"Ukraine is ready for a substantive discussion, and we are interested in ensuring that the outcome brings us closer to a real and dignified end to the war."

(Corrects to add missing word in headline)

By Ariba Shahid

KARACHI, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Pakistan's security forces killed 145 militants over 40 hours after coordinated attacks across Balochistan, the chief minister of the southwestern province said on Sunday, as the authorities battle one of the deadliest flare-ups in years.

The attacks underscore the persistence of insurgents in the resource-rich province bordering Iran and Afghanistan, where separatist militant groups have stepped up assaults on security forces, civilians and infrastructure.

DUBAI, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that if the U.S. attacked Iran it would become a regional conflict, state media reported on Sunday, amid heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran.

The U.S. has built up its naval presence in the Middle East after President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened Iran with intervention if it did not agree to a nuclear deal or failed to stop killing protesters.

By Maayan Lubell and Nidal al-Mughrabi

JERUSALEM/CAIRO Feb 1 (Reuters) - Preparations to reopen Gaza's main border crossing in Rafah were underway on Sunday though it was uncertain any Palestinians would pass through it before the day's end, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.

Before the war, the Rafah border crossing with Egypt was the only direct exit point for most Palestinians in Gaza to reach the outside world as well as a key entry point for aid into the territory. It has been largely shut since May 2024.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday said he was hopeful of agreeing a deal with Iran after the country's supreme leader warned that any US attack on the Islamic republic would trigger a regional war.

Following the Iranian authorities' deadly response to anti-government protests that peaked last month, Trump has threatened military action and ordered the dispatch of an aircraft carrier group to the Middle East.

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday likened the recent protests to a "coup", warning that a US attack would trigger a broad conflict.

By Andrea Shalal, Timour Azhari and Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON/RIYADH, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Mark Savaya, named by U.S. President Donald Trump as special envoy for Iraq in October, is no longer in that role, sources familiar with the move said.

The move comes amid growing tensions between Washington and Baghdad over Washington's push to curb Iranian influence in Iraqi politics.

DUBAI, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Iran considers as "terrorist groups" the armies of EU countries that listed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the bloc's list of terrorist organisations, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on Sunday.

The EU marked a symbolic shift in its approach to Iran's leadership on Thursday by designating the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation, following what turned out to be the Islamic Republic's bloodiest crackdown of protests since its establishment in 1979.

Israel partially reopened the Rafah crossing between the devastated Gaza Strip and Egypt on Sunday, following months of appeals from aid groups, though access is limited to pedestrians.

COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body coordinating Palestinian civilian affairs, made no mention of allowing in a long hoped-for surge of aid, and clarified that the passage of individuals through the gateway in both directions was expected to begin Monday.