- Pakistan 'committed' to role -

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he had spoken by phone with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian after US-Iran peace talks in Islamabad were called off.

"Pakistan remains committed to serve as an honest and sincere facilitator - working tirelessly to advance durable peace and lasting stability in the region," Sharif wrote on X.

- Israel orders attacks on Hezbollah -

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military to strike Lebanon's Hezbollah hard after what the army said was a string of ceasefire violations.

- US 'truly serious'? -

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that it remained to be seen whether the United States was "truly serious about diplomacy", after a visit to Pakistan where he met with senior officials.

- Trump cancels envoys' Pakistan trip -

US President Donald Trump told Fox News he had ordered his envoys not to travel to Pakistan to continue talks with Iranian officials on ending the war.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said: "There is tremendous infighting and confusion within their 'leadership.' Nobody knows who is in charge, including them."

Trump said the move did not mean a restart of the war.

- Six killed in Lebanon -

Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli strikes had killed six people in the country's south, despite a ceasefire that was extended this week in the war between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

- German minesweeper -

Germany will soon send a minesweeper to the Mediterranean for a possible mission in the Strait of Hormuz after the end of the US-Iran war, a defence ministry spokeswoman told AFP.

- US 'quagmire' -

The United States "is looking for a face-saving way to escape the war quagmire it has become trapped in", a spokesman for Iran's defence ministry said.

Iran's military also warned it would respond if the US maintained its blockade of Iranian ports, calling it "banditry".

- Iran execution -

Iran extended its long series of executions carried out during the war with the capital punishment of a man its judiciary said had carried out a "mission" on behalf of Israel's spy agency during mass protests in January.

- Kuwait frees journalist -

An American-Kuwaiti journalist has been released after being held for weeks in Kuwait during a crackdown on sharing footage of the US-Iran war, a US State Department official said.

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, who has contributed to The New York Times, PBS, and Al Jazeera English, was arrested on March 3 for allegedly spreading false information, harming national security and misusing his mobile phone.

burs/yad/jj

THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY