China and Pakistan in diplomacy push as Trump issues veiled threat to leave NATO

• China and Pakistan on Tuesday called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gulf and the wider Middle East, urging the swift launch of peace talks and the restoration of normal navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, as their foreign ministers met in Beijing. READ MORE BELOW

• US President Donald Trump said he was strongly considering pulling the United States out of NATO after allies failed to back US military action against Iran, according to an interview with Britain's Daily Telegraph. READ MORE BELOW

• At least seven people were killed and 24 wounded in two Israeli strikes in the Beirut area. READ MORE BELOW

• Bahrain has circulated a revised U.N. Security Council draft resolution on protecting commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, retaining language authorising "all necessary means" but dropping an explicit reference to binding enforcement.

• Global oil supplies are expected to be hit twice as hard this month as in March, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday, underlining the urgent need to resolve the conflict.

• An oil tanker leased to state-owned QatarEnergy was hit by an Iranian cruise missile on Wednesday in Qatari waters, the defence ministry said.

• A surface-to-air missile downed an Israeli military drone during operational activity in southern Lebanon overnight on Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said on Wednesday.

• Oil supply disruptions from the Middle East will rise in April and begin to impact Europe's economy as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz severely curbs supplies, International Energy Agency head Fatih Birol said on Wednesday.

• French peacekeeping troops serving in Lebanon were subjected to "absolutely unacceptable intimidation", said France's junior army minister Alice Rufo after three incidents on March 28 involving Israel's military.

• UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday that the global instability caused by the Iran war means Britain should align more closely with European allies on security and economy, following repeated criticism from US President Donald Trump.

• The first deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Oman to a German company have begun despite the war in Iran, said a spokesperson for the German state-owned gas supplier Sefe on Wednesday.

• Britain's food prices will be rising by almost 10% by the end of this year due to the Iran war, the country's food and drink manufacturers' lobby The Food and Drink Federation (FDF)  warned on Wednesday, around three times faster than its previous forecast.

IN DETAIL

China and Pakistan call for a halt

China and Pakistan on Tuesday called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gulf and the wider Middle East.

Both countries have called for talks to end the US-Israeli war on Iran, now in the fifth week. Pakistan has previously said it is ready to facilitate peace talks between Washington and Tehran.

Pakistan, which shares a more than 900‑km border with Iran, has emerged as a key mediator, building on its courtship of US President Donald Trump and its reputation as a relatively neutral player with long-standing ties to Iran.

"Dialogue and diplomacy are the only feasible ways to resolve conflicts," China and Pakistan said in a five-point initiative put forward during the meeting. "China and Pakistan support the parties concerned in initiating negotiations, and all sides should commit to resolving disputes through peaceful means."

The initiative said the sovereignty, territorial integrity, national independence and security of Iran and Gulf countries should be safeguarded, and called for the protection of civilians, civilian infrastructure and peaceful nuclear facilities.

Foreign ministers Wang Yi and Mohammad Ishaq Dar also said the safety of waterways must be ensured, including that of ships and crews stranded in and around the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic chokepoint now at the centre of global energy and shipping concerns.

China and Pakistan called on all parties to "arrange for civil and commercial vessels to pass through safely as soon as possible and restore normal navigation in the strait at an early date," the initiative said.

Trump says war close to end but issues NATO threat

President Trump signalled he could wind down the war within weeks even without a deal.

"We'll be leaving (the Iran conflict) very soon," Trump told reporters, saying that could be "within two weeks, maybe two weeks, maybe three."

"Iran doesn't have to make a deal, no," he said, when asked if successful diplomacy was a prerequisite for the US to end what it calls 'Operation Epic Fury'.

However, the increasingly unpredictable Trump also scaled up threats to pull the United States out of the NATO defence alliance if European states did not help stop Iran blocking the Strait of Hormuz.

"I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin knows that too, by the way," Trump told Britain's Daily Telegraph, saying he had moved beyond merely reconsidering US membership.

The remarks on the conflict underscored Washington's shifting and at times contradictory statements about a conflict that has killed thousands, spread across the region and caused unprecedented energy disruption.

At least seven killed in Israeli strikes in Beirut area

At least seven people were killed and 24 wounded in two Israeli strikes in the Beirut area, the Lebanese health ministry said on Wednesday, in attacks that hit vehicles in Beirut's southern outskirts and in an area just south of the capital.

The strikes are the latest in an escalating Israeli offensive in Lebanon which has killed at least 1,200 people and displaced 1.2 million others. Lebanon was pulled into the war in the Middle East when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in solidarity with Tehran, two days after Iran was attacked by Israel and the United States. Hezbollah's attack prompted a new Israeli ground and air offensive.

Israel's military said on Wednesday it carried out two separate strikes targeting a senior Hezbollah commander and another senior member of the Iran-aligned group in the Beirut area, but did not identify them or say whether they had been killed.

Lebanon's state news agency NNA reported that one strike hit a vehicle in the Khaldeh area south of Beirut, killing two people and wounding three others. A second strike hit vehicles in Beirut's Jnah area, where the health ministry said at least five people were killed and 21 wounded.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah on the strikes.