ANKARA, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Ships are passing smoothly through the Turkish straits to the Black Sea despite heightened concerns about safety, two Turkish government officials told Reuters on Sunday.

On Saturday, Bloomberg News reported that Ankara had restricted commercial ship traffic entering the Black Sea following attacks on vessels there, including Turkish-owned ships.

Turkey has issued repeated warnings to Moscow and Kyiv over the attacks in the Black Sea, urging the warring sides to take measures to ensure navigational safety in the area.

KYIV, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Ukraine's Odesa seaport sustained damage from an overnight Russian attack, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday, adding that eight people had been wounded in the city.

"In this way, the Russians are at war with the world's food security," he said. Odesa's seaports are the main artery for Ukraine's vast agricultural exports.

Ukraine's energy ministry said Russia had attacked power facilities in the Odesa region, causing a "significant amount" of the port city's residents to lose electricity overnight.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards insisted Sunday that they would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the United States complied with a list of demands, including paying compensation for war damage.

Iran's effective blockade of the crucial energy conduit has rattled allies, roiled markets and driven up prices, but US President Donald Trump said Sunday that he was "low-keying it" in his approach to Tehran, suggesting he believed he could wait them out economically.

DUBAI, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Iran and the U.S. are not engaged in talks and Tehran will not start them as long as Washington breaches an interim deal signed in June, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday, adding that messages are being exchanged via intermediaries.

By Enas Alashray, Steve Holland and Nafisa Eltahir

CAIRO/WASHINGTON/DUBAI, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Iran said on Saturday that a deal with Oman on control of the Strait of Hormuz was close but would not be enough to free up the waterway, and the United Arab Emirates said Iran had hit another ship there.

Agreement between Iran and Oman over the strait, which separates the two countries, is seen as vital to a wider deal to end the war, which began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28 and led to Tehran establishing a chokehold over the major energy export route.

ANKARA, Aug 8 (Reuters) - A defence pact signed between Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia is technically the same as NATO's Article 5 mutual defence agreement, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday, adding the accord was not targeting Iran.

Fidan also said Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan wanted to see the alliance expand, and that Egypt was a potential candidate to join, among others.

Iran set preconditions on Saturday for a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, including compensation for war damages, complicating a potential deal to open the waterway essential to the world economy.

Tehran has imposed an effective blockade of the strait since the United States and Israel struck Iran in late February, and wants to charge tolls for passage, attacking ships it accuses of attempting to circumvent its preferred route.

Aug 8 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates on Saturday condemned what it said was an Iranian attack on a carrier linked to its state oil company as it passed through the Strait of Hormuz, accusing Tehran of "acts of piracy".

State news agency WAM initially reported ADNOC as saying one of its vessels had been targeted by a missile early on Saturday and that the situation was under control.

The UAE Foreign Ministry later condemned what it called "the hostile Iranian attack" on an ADNOC vessel.

Palestinian Christians call themselves "living stones" and say they have lived continuously in the Holy Land for the last 2,000 years. Maybe not for much longer, believes Reverend Mitri Raheb.

"If the current conditions continue, there will not be a single Palestinian Christian left by 2050," said Raheb, founder and president of Dar al-Kalima University in Bethlehem, the biblical birthplace of Jesus Christ.

By Steve Holland and Timour Azhari

WASHINGTON/RIYADH, Aug 7 (Reuters) - A U.S. official on Fridayreported progress between Iran and Oman that could soon reopen the Strait of Hormuz, potentially restoring oil exports that have been disrupted by the five-month-old U.S. war with Iran.

The U.S. official, who declined to be identified, said Washington anticipated an agreement soon between the two countries, which sit on either side of the strait, so that normal oil traffic could resume.