- UK to host Hormuz meet -

Britain will this week host a meeting of about 35 countries to discuss how to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital thoroughfare for much of the world's seaborne oil and gas, UK leader Keir Starmer announced.

- Iran steel hit -

US-Israeli strikes have hit steel plants in central and southwest Iran, causing damage to production units, Iranian media reported.

The Mobarakeh Steel Company complex in the central province of Isfahan, one of Iran's biggest, sustained "significant damage and destruction", with other sites in the southwestern Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province also hit, the Fars news agency said.

- Strikes near ex-US Tehran embassy -

Strikes hit an area near the former US embassy in Tehran, damaging some of the building's walls, an AFP journalist reported.

The wall of the site of the 1979 hostage crisis, since transformed into a museum known as the "Den of Spies" was damaged.

- Australia PM warns of tough months -

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese warned the months ahead "may not be easy" because of the Middle East war, in a rare nationwide address.

"No government can promise to eliminate the pressures that this war is causing," Albanese said.

- Kuwait bank shuts doors -

A major Kuwaiti bank said it will close its headquarters for two days starting Wednesday, as Iran carries out daily strikes on the Gulf more than one month into the Middle East war.

- Crude drops, Europe stocks rise -

Oil prices tumbled and European stocks rose after US President Donald Trump said the war with Iran could end within weeks.

International benchmark Brent North Sea crude fell five percent to $98.77 a barrel, and the main US oil contract WTI dropped around four percent to $97.28 a barrel.

The Frankfurt and Paris stock markets jumped more than two percent at the open, while London's FTSE 100 index gained 1.7 percent.

- Iran denies US negotiations -

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said there were no negotiations with the United States and that Tehran had not responded to a reported 15-point proposal from Washington to end the war.

"There are no grounds for negotiations," Araghchi said in an interview with Al Jazeera and dubbed into Arabic from Persian. He added however that some messages had been exchanged directly with US special envoy Steve Witkoff.

- Houthis claim Israel attack -

Yemen's Houthis claimed a missile attack targeting Israel that they said was launched jointly with their backer Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah group -- the third such attack by the Houthis since they entered the Middle East war.

Israeli's army said its air defences responded to a missile launched from Yemen, with no reports of casualties or damage.

- 14 Israelis wounded -

Israel's emergency medical service said 14 people, including an 11-year-old girl, were wounded by a missile attack in central Israel that the military blamed on Iran.

Missile alerts sounded across central and northern Israel after the military issued warnings for incoming fire.

- Bangladeshi killed in UAE -

A Bangladeshi national was killed by falling shrapnel after a drone interception in the United Arab Emirates, near the Strait of Hormuz in Fujairah, the official WAM news agency said.

- Attacks on the Gulf -

Kuwait international airport came under an Iranian drone attack that led to "a large fire" at a fuel depot, the civil aviation authority said.

Bahrain's interior ministry said a fire broke out at a business facility "as a result of the Iranian aggression", while Saudi Arabia said it shot down several drones.

A tanker was also hit off Qatar, a British maritime security agency said.

burs-sbk/tw

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