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War in the Middle East: latest developments Paris, France, March 23 (AFP) Mar 23, 2026 Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war on Monday:
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he had spoken with Donald Trump and that the US president believed the countries' military gains in Iran could be converted into a negotiated agreement that protected Israel's interests. "President Trump believes there is a chance to leverage the tremendous achievements of the (Israeli military) and the US military in order to realise the war's objectives in an agreement -- an agreement that will safeguard our vital interests," Netanyahu said in a video statement.
AFPTV's live broadcast showed a cloud of smoke over the southern suburbs, which are considered a stronghold of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
The system is a key component of Israel's multi-layered air defence shield.
The hit came days after Israel announced it had "eliminated" the intelligence chief of the Basij in a strike that had also killed the force's top commander, Gholamreza Soleimani. Israel has been targeting the Basij force as part of efforts to undermine the Iranian authorities' grip on power.
"The summons follows the recent charging of two individuals, one Iranian national and one British-Iranian dual national, under the National Security Act, on suspicion of providing assistance to a foreign intelligence service," a Foreign Office spokesperson said.
"What we have seen in recent days in the Middle East risks reaching a point of no return," ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric warned in a statement.
"We're deploying short range air defence systems to Bahrain at speed," Starmer told a parliamentary committee, adding that Britain was "doing the same with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia".
"No country should be allowed to hold Hormuz hostage," Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber said in virtual remarks to the annual CERAWeek conference in Houston.
Trump made clear the talks -- denied by Tehran -- were not with Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, but with people he described as "very reasonable", and said so many top officials had already been killed in the conflict that "there's automatically a regime change".
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