Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian has hailed mediation efforts by Pakistan to stop the war with US and Israel.
In a call with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Pezeshkian "thanked Pakistan for its mediation efforts to stop the aggression against the Islamic republic," according to the presidency.
The call took place as foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey prepared to meet in Islamabad for talks on the war in the Middle East.
Reporting with AFP
Qatar and Ukraine have signed a defence agreement which includes cooperation on countering threats from missiles and drones, the Gulf state's defence ministry said.
The agreement was reached during a visit to Qatar by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
It came as Iran pressed an aerial campaign against its neighbours.
"The agreement includes collaboration in technological fields, development of joint investments and the exchange of expertise in countering missiles and unmanned aerial systems," the ministry said.
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly has said the government would slow down large state projects involving high fuel and diesel consumption for two months to rationalise consumption.
The move is part of a number of broader measures to cope with the economic fallout from the Iran war, which has driven up energy costs and strained public finances.
Egypt’s debt servicing costs are set to rise by 5 per cent in the next fiscal year, finance minister Ahmed Kouchouk said.
Lebanon’s president has condemned Israel’s killing of three journalists in southern Lebanon.
In a post on X, the President Joseph Aoun says Ali Shuaib, Fatima Fatouni and Mohammad Fatouni were targeted by Israel while they were working in the country’s south and has condemned the attack.
Israel’s military has confirmed the airstrike and claims Ali Shuaib was a Hezbollah militant, who operated under the guise of a journalist to share locations of Israeli soldiers.
The ABC has contacted Ali Shuaib’s employer Al-Manar about the allegations.
Israel did not comment on the death of the two other journalists, Fatima Fatouni and Mohammad Fatouni, who were also killed in the airstrike.
We're getting some more details coming through about one of the Lebanese journalists killed in a strike in the south of the country.
The Israeli military confirmed it had killed Ali Shoeib, who it said was an elite unit of Hezbollah who worked as a journalist for Al Manar television network.
Shoeib "operated within the Hezbollah terrorist organisation under the guise of a journalist for the Al Manar network, while operating systematically to expose the locations of IDF soldiers operating in southern Lebanon and along the border," the military said.
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If you need a quick rundown of what's been happening in the Middle East, here's the key points.
Kyiv on Saturday denied Iran's claim that Tehran had targeted and destroyed a Ukrainian anti-drone system depot in the United Arab Emirates, calling it a "lie" and a "disinformation".
"This is a lie, we officially refute this information," Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy told reporters.
"The Iranian regime often conducts such disinformation operations and in this it is no different from the Russians."
Reporting with AFP
Three Lebanese journalists, including a correspondent with a Hezbollah-affiliated outlet, have been killed by an Israeli strike that targeted their vehicle in southern Lebanon, a military source told AFP.
Al Shouaib of Hezbollah's channel Al-Manar and Fatima Fatouni of Al-Mayadeen, which is seen as close to Hezbollah, were killed in Jezzine.
Fatouni's brother, a cameraman, was also killed, the source said.
Al-Mayadeen and Al-Manar confirmed the deaths of their journalists.
Reporting with AFP
Members of Iran's Red Crescent Society have been visiting the site of an attack on an auto service centre in Tehran, Iran.
Official's from company Hypercar say the damage was caused by strikes on the city on March 1.
AP photographer Vahid Salemi took these photos of the aftermath.
If you're wondering what Pakistan's connection to the US and Iran is, and why they are positioning themselves to potentially host peace talks between the two countries, here's some context.
Pakistan shares a 900-kilometre border in its southwest with Iran, and also deep historical, cultural and religious links.
Iran was the first country to recognise Pakistan after independence in 1947. Pakistan returned the favour for the Islamic republic after the 1979 revolution.
They cooperated against Moscow during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
Cross-border militant activity in the Balochistan region is a concern for both.
But Pakistan also represents some Iranian diplomatic interests in Washington, where Tehran has no embassy.
And it is home to the world's second-biggest Shia Muslim population after Iran.
Pakistan's powerful army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, has built up a personal rapport with US President Donald Trump and spoke to him last Sunday.
Munir visited Washington with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last year after a flare-up in hostilities between Pakistan and India in divided Kashmir.
Sharif praised Trump's "bold and visionary" intervention, while Munir said the US leader deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for stopping an escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
On Iran, Trump said Pakistan knows the country "better than most" and this week shared Sharif's X post that Pakistan was "ready" to host talks to end the conflict.