By Tamiyuki Kihara, Ben Blanchard, Tim Kelly and Praveen Menon

TOKYO/TAIPEI/SYDNEY, March 3 (Reuters) - Japanese lawmakers reeling from attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel gathered on Monday at the ruling party's offices in Tokyo to question bureaucrats about evacuation plans, energy stocks and the legal basis for U.S. action.

But one query posed at the closed-door meeting, described to Reuters by a politician who attended, reflected a deeper fear haunting Asia's corridors of power since Trump's weekend attacks unleashed chaos in the Middle East.

By Mike Stone, David Jeans and Joey Roulette

March 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. successfully debuted a low‑cost suicide drone in combat in Iran just eight months after its Pentagon unveiling, as the U.S. pushes to accelerate weapons programs.

The Low-Cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System (LUCAS) drone, manufactured by Arizona's SpektreWorks, was showcased in July 2025 when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth walked the Pentagon's inner courtyard with more than a dozen companies competing to supply the military with new equipment.

MOSCOW, March 3 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin will convey to Iran concerns among Arab leaders about Tehran's strikes on oil infrastructure in the region, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, as the Iran conflict continued to widen.

Putin held a flurry of phone calls on Monday with four Arab Gulf state leaders, offering to use Moscow's ties to Tehran - with which it has a strategic partnership - to try and defuse tensions in the region.

GENEVA, March 3 (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights office urged the "forces" behind an attack on a girls' school in Iran to investigate and share insights into the "horrific" incident, without naming them.

"The High Commissioner (Volker Turk) calls for a prompt, impartial and thorough investigation into the circumstances of the attack. The onus is on the forces that carried out the attack to investigate it," U.N. human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told a Geneva press briefing, describing the incident as "horrific".

MOSCOW, March 3 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Moscow had still seen no evidence that Iran was developing nuclear weapons as the U.S. and Israel pursue their attack.

U.S. President Donald Trump has offered various reasons for going to war with Iran. On Monday, in his most extensive public comments so far, he said he had ordered the attack to thwart Tehran's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

By Emma Farge

GENEVA, March 3 (Reuters) - A key aid crossing that had been momentarily closed into Gaza will reopen imminently, the United Nations World Food Programme said on Tuesday.

Humanitarian supplies will be able to enter through the Kerem Shalom crossing into the enclave between Tuesday and Wednesday, the WFP said.

"That is timely for us, and we need to get in aid as fast as we can," Samer Abdel Jaber, WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Cairo.

VIENNA, March 3 (Reuters) - Entrances to Iran's underground and previously bombed uranium-enrichment plant at Natanz have been struck as part of the U.S.-Israeli military attacks on the country, the U.N. nuclear watchdog confirmed on Tuesday.

The underground Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) is one of Iran's three uranium-enrichment plants that are known to have been operating when Israel and the United States carried out strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last June.

GENEVA, March 3 (Reuters) - At least 30,000 displaced people have sought protection in shelters in Lebanon since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah began on Monday, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.

"Conservative estimates suggest that nearly 30,000 people were hosted and registered at collective shelters," said UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch.

"Many more slept in their cars on the side of roads or were still stuck in traffic jams on the roads," he added.

March 3 (Reuters) - The Israeli military said early on Tuesday that it was carrying out strikes on Hezbollah command centers and weapons storage facilities in Beirut.

(Reporting by Enas Alashray and Yomna Ehab; Editing by Nia Williams)

ANKARA, March 3 (Reuters) - Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said work was underway with the United States to lift sanctions imposed on Ankara before the U.S. midterm elections in November, but added Israel was opposed to the potential move.

In 2020, Washington imposed CAATSA sanctions on fellow NATO member Turkey over its acquisition of Russian S-400 systems. It also removed Ankara from the F-35 fighter jet programme, a move Turkey called unjust and illegal.