- Vance leaves for talks -

Vice President JD Vance departed Washington for US-Iran peace talks being held in Pakistan, after each side accused the other of breaking the terms of their two-week ceasefire agreement.

"We're going to try to have a positive negotiation," Vance told reporters.

"If the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith, we're certainly willing to extend the open hand. If they're going to try to play us, then they're going to find the negotiating team is not that receptive."

- Hezbollah warns Beirut govt -

The chief of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, urged the Lebanese government to stop giving "free concessions" to Israel, with the two governments due to begin their own negotiations in Washington next week.

"We will not accept a return to the previous situation, and we call on officials to stop offering free concessions," Qassem said in a written message broadcast on the party's Al-Manar TV, in which he also denounced Israeli strikes that killed more than 300 people in Lebanon on Wednesday as "bloody criminality".

- Lebanon in food crisis -

The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said the entire food system in Lebanon was reeling from the conflict, with prices surging and supply chains disrupted as Israel continues its offensive.

"What we're witnessing is not just a displacement crisis: it is rapidly becoming a food security crisis," said Allison Oman, the WFP's country director in Lebanon.

- Hezbollah targets Israeli base -

Hezbollah said it had targeted Israel's Ashdod naval base with missiles, two days after the deadly Israeli strikes on Beirut, which Iran and Hezbollah insist violated the US-Iranian ceasefire agreement.

"In response to the enemy's violation of the ceasefire and its repeated attacks on Beirut, and after the Resistance adhered to the ceasefire while the enemy did not, the fighters of the Islamic Resistance targeted... the naval base in the port of Ashdod with missiles," the group said in a statement.

- Israel urged to stop Beirut attacks -

European and Arab states have pressured Israel to stop targeting Beirut, a Western diplomat told AFP.

The diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous in order to discuss sensitive matters, said there was "ongoing diplomatic pressure from European states, Gulf states and Egypt on Israel to prevent renewed Israeli airstrikes on Beirut" following Wednesday's attack.

- Turkey aid to Iran -

The Red Cross and Turkey's Red Crescent have dispatched an aid convoy to Iran, as the organisation warned of a "desperate" humanitarian situation.

"Humanitarian needs in Iran are extremely high," International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) spokesperson Scott Craig told AFP shortly before the convoy departed from the outskirts of Ankara.

- Saudi refinery shut -

French energy giant TotalEnergies said it had shut down a major refinery on the eastern Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia after it was damaged during the war.

The Saudi energy ministry had announced Thursday "multiple attacks" recently on its oil and gas sites, including the SATORP refinery, a joint venture owned by TotalEnergies and the Saudi state-owned Aramco group.

- Israel air raid sirens -

Air raid alerts sounded across Israel, including in the commercial hub of Tel Aviv and the southern coastal city of Ashdod, after rocket fire from Lebanon.

There were no immediate reports of casualties, but Israeli media reported that air-defence systems had intercepted at least one incoming rocket.

- Iran leader issues new message -

Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in his latest written message that the Islamic republic did not want war with the United States and Israel but would protect its rights as a nation, state television reported.

"We will not renounce our legitimate rights under any circumstances, and in this respect, we consider the entire resistance front as a whole," he added, in an apparent reference to Lebanon, where Israel is fighting with Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

- Iran doing 'poor job' on Hormuz: Trump -

US President Donald Trump accused Iran of doing a "very poor job" of allowing oil through the Strait of Hormuz, and of breaching the terms of their fragile two-week ceasefire agreement.

"Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz," Trump said on his Truth Social platform. "That is not the agreement we have!"

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TotalEnergies

Saudi Aramco