IN BRIEF

• Iran attacked and set ablaze a fully loaded Kuwait-flagged crude oil tanker off Dubai. READ MORE BELOW

• Pakistan's foreign minister was due to discuss the conflict during a Tuesday visit to China.

• Three Chinese ships were allowed to sail through the Strait of Hormuz. READ MORE BELOW

• President Donald Trump said the US would obliterate power plants, oil wells and Kharg Island if a deal was not reached soon and the strait was not opened. READ MORE BELOW

• Iran said its latest targets included "hideouts" of US military personnel in five regional bases and Israel.

• Blasts echoed through Dubai on Tuesday, and falling debris caused damage after Saudi Arabia's civil defense intercepted a drone in Kharj province.

• Explosions were heard in Tehran, while a strike on a Shi'ite Muslim congregation hall in the northwestern Iranian city of Zanjan killed three.

• Thousands of soldiers from the US Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division have started arriving in the Middle East.

• Israel's military said four of its soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon.

• Israel aims to establish a buffer zone inside southern Lebanon and maintain control over the entire area up to the Litani River, its defense minister said. READ MORE BELOW

• A security expert told CGTN the main problem with US-Iran negotiations is that "Israel is not in the room." READ MORE BELOW

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said US regime-change plans in Iran and Venezuela were aimed at controlling oil and gas resources. READ MORE BELOW

• Italy has reportedly denied permission for US military aircraft to land at Sicily's Sigonella air base before flying to the Middle East. READ MORE BELOW

IN DETAIL

Iran sets oil tanker alight despite Trump threats

Iran attacked and set ablaze a fully loaded crude oil tanker off Dubai on Tuesday, despite a threat by President Donald Trump that the US will obliterate Iran's energy plants if it does not agree to a peace deal and open the Strait of Hormuz.

Authorities in Dubai said the fire on the Kuwait-flagged Al-Salmi had been brought under control following a drone attack, with no oil leak and no injuries to the crew. Kuwait Petroleum Corp, the ship's owner, said the vessel's hull was damaged.

The attack was the latest on merchant vessels in the strait, a vital waterway, since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.

LSEG Data showed the vessel was heading to Qingdao in China, and was carrying 1.2 million barrels of Saudi crude oil and 800,000 barrels of Kuwaiti crude, according to monitoring service TankerTrackers.com.

The Al-Salmi may not have been the intended target. Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted a container ship in the Gulf over its ties with Israel. But they appeared to be referring to the Singapore-flagged Haiphong Express, which was anchored next to the Al-Salmi, according to shipping data.

Pakistan seeks to mediate as attacks continue

With attacks showing no sign of easing, Pakistan is seeking to mediate in the war. Its foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, was due to discuss the conflict during a visit to China on Tuesday after hosting talks with Türkiye, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

China issued a new appeal to all sides on Tuesday to halt military operations. It said three Chinese ships had recently been allowed to sail through the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries about a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.

Iran says it has received US peace proposals via intermediaries, but its foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday they were "unrealistic, illogical and excessive".

After those comments, Trump said the US was in talks with a "more reasonable regime", referring to the Iranian leaders who have replaced those killed in the war, but issued a new warning over the Strait of Hormuz. He said the US would obliterate power plants, oil wells and Kharg Island, from where Iran exports much of its oil, if a deal was not reached soon and the strait was not opened.

Iran's military spokesman said targets in its latest attacks included "hideouts" of US military personnel in five bases in the region and in Israel. Blasts echoed through Dubai on Tuesday, and Saudi Arabia's civil defense said falling debris caused limited damage after a drone was intercepted in Kharj province.

Explosions were heard in Tehran and residents in the eastern Pirouzi district reported power outages, Iran's Tasnim news agency said. A strike on a Shi'ite Muslim congregation hall in the northwestern Iranian city of Zanjan killed three people, a provincial official told Iranian media.

Israel's military said four of its soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon, where three United Nations peacekeepers from Indonesia have been killed in two separate incidents.

China confirms three ships passed through Strait of Hormuz

Three Chinese ships recently sailed through the Strait of Hormuz after coordination with relevant parties, a foreign ministry spokesperson told a regular daily press briefing on Tuesday, while calling for peace and stability in the Gulf Region.

"The Strait of Hormuz and the surrounding waters are an important route for global trade and energy supplies. China calls for an immediate ceasefire, an end to the fighting and restoration of peace and stability in the Gulf Region," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters regarding reports of the vessels' passage.

Ship-tracking data showed two Chinese container ships sailed through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday on their second attempt to leave the Gulf after turning back on Friday.

The vessels sailed in close formation out of the strait and into open waters, data on the MarineTraffic platform showed.

"Both vessels successfully crossed on a second attempt today, marking the first container vessels to leave the Persian Gulf since the start of the conflict, excluding Iranian flag vessels," said Rebecca Gerdes, data analyst with Kpler, which owns MarineTraffic.

"Both vessels are steaming at an elevated speed toward the Gulf of Oman at the moment."

US soldiers arrive in the region 

Thousands of soldiers from the US Army's elite 82nd Airborne Division have started arriving in the Middle East, two US officials told Reuters on Monday, part of reinforcements that would expand Trump's options to potentially include a ground assault in Iran.

The White House said Trump wanted a deal with Iran before an April 6 deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.

The Wall Street Journal reported Trump had told aides he is willing to end the military campaign even if the strait remains largely closed and leave a complex operation to reopen it for a later date. 

Asked about the report, the White House referred to comments made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who told Al Jazeera the strait would be open "one way or another" after the US military operation.

Israel to establish buffer zone in south Lebanon up to Litani River 

Israel will establish a buffer zone inside southern Lebanon and maintain control over the entire area up to the Litani River once the conflict with Hezbollah ends, Israel's defense minister said.

"At the end of the operation, the IDF would control the area up to the Litani River, including the remaining Litani bridges, while eliminating Radwan forces that infiltrated the area and destroying all weapons there," Israel Katz said in a statement following a security assessment, calling it a "security zone".

Radwan forces are an elite military unit of Hezbollah.

Katz said that the more than 600,000 Lebanese residents who have been evacuated northward would be barred from returning south of the Litani until the safety of residents in northern Israel is guaranteed.

To that end, "all homes in villages near the border in Lebanon would be destroyed, according to the model of Rafah and Beit Hanoun in Gaza, in order to permanently remove threats near the border to northern residents" in Israel, Katz said.

Israel is prepared for "weeks" more of fighting in Iran, a military spokesman said on Tuesday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview the war was "beyond the halfway point."

Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters the decision is up to political leaders. But "we are prepared to keep operating for weeks to come. We have the targets for that, the munition for that, the manpower for that, and it's up to the leadership to decide," he said.

Expert tells CGTN: Iran-US diplomacy difficult if Israel 'not in room' 

Pakistan is among a group of nations acting as intermediaries for peace proposals between Iran and the US – but a former national security adviser to Pakistan told CGTN there's a major problem with the negotiations. 

"Israel is not in the room," said Dr. Moeed Yusuf, "and it's proven so far that it's actually not been interested in letting this conflict find an off-ramp. So I think that's a question mark – even if there was a conversation between the US and Iran, would that end the conflict? I don't know."

Russia's Lavrov: Regime change plans in Iran and Venezuela were about oil  

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that US plans to unfurl regime change in Iran and Venezuela were aimed at gaining more control over oil and gas resources.

Lavrov said the United States and Israel did not want normalization between Iran and its neighbors, and cautioned that the war in the Middle East could spiral into a wider conflict.

Italy 'refuses' US aircraft use of Sicily base for Middle East operations 

Italy has denied permission for US military aircraft to land at Sicily's Sigonella air base before flying to the Middle East, a source told Reuters on Tuesday, confirming a newspaper report.

Daily Corriere della Sera reported "some US bombers" had been due to land at the base in eastern Sicily before heading to the Middle East. It did not say when they had been due to land.

Corriere della Sera added that permission was not granted as the US had not sought authorisation and Italy's military leadership was not consulted, as required under treaties governing the use of US military installations in the country. 

The Italian defense ministry had no immediate comment.

On Monday, Spain closed its airspace to US planes involved in attacks on Iran, a step beyond its previous denial of use of jointly-operated military bases.