LIVE: Blow for Trump as US counterterror chief resigns over Iran conflict

South Korea says 26 of its vessels and 183 crewmembers remain in waters around the Strait of Hormuz.

Park Il, spokesperson of South Korea's Foreign Ministry, said Tuesday that officials are in close contact with port authorities in nearby countries to facilitate the provision of food and other supplies.

Park said they plan to take unspecified additional steps if the situation worsens.

South Korea has been cautious about discussing support for US efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz after President Donald Trump urged several governments, including Seoul, to deploy naval assets.

The Israeli military says it conducted a “combined wave of strikes” against infrastructure in Tehran, Shiraz and Tabriz on Monday.

The military says the strikes in Tehran hit command centres, launch sites and air defence systems.

In Shiraz, the internal security forces' command centre and a ballistic missile site were hit.

A Pakistani man was killed Tuesday morning in a missile attack on the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi, authorities say.

The Abu Dhabi Media Office says the man was killed when shrapnel fell in the Bani Yas area while air defences were intercepting a ballistic missile.

Kuwaiti security forces arrested 16 people suspected of having links with Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group allied with Iran, the state-run Kuwait News Agency reported.

The interior ministry said in a statement late Monday that the 14 Kuwaiti and two Lebanese suspects sought to “create chaos, and disrupt public order,” during the war, the agency reported.

The ministry did not identify the people arrested. It was not immediately clear if they had lawyers.

It said authorities found firearms, ammunition, weapons for training and assassinations, and encrypted communication devices and drones.

The ministry said the suspects aimed to recruit others to join Hezbollah.

Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry said it intercepted a dozen drones on Tuesday morning over the country's vast Eastern Province, home to oil infrastructure.

A fire broke out in an industrial area in Qatar in the morning after a missile was intercepted over the gas-rich country, the interior ministry said.

Explosions were heard in Qatar as air defences near Doha worked to intercept incoming Iranian fire. Qatar's Defence Ministry said it intercepted a missile attack on the country.

In the UAE, Dubai residents received a missile alert around the same time.

Twice on Monday, President Donald Trump said he'd wrangled a confession of sorts from an Oval Office predecessor who he said had expressed regret in a private conversation about not attacking Iran the way Trump has been doing for more than two weeks.

But there's just a little problem: Representatives for the four living former presidents — three Democrats and one Republican — said none have been in touch with Trump recently.

Trump declined to name the former president when reporters asked who it was, saying he didn't want to “embarrass him.”

The Republican president first told the story during extended remarks about the Iran war as he opened a meeting of the board of trustees of the Kennedy Center.

He repeated that Iran had been a threat to the United States for decades but said he is the only president who had the courage to do something about it.

“Look, for 47 years, no president was willing to do what I'm doing, and they should have done it a long time ago," he said. "It would have been a lot easier. There's no president that wanted to do it.

“And yet every president knew. I've spoken to a certain president, who I like, actually, a past president, a former president. He said, 'I wish I did it, I wish I did,' but they didn't do it. I'm doing it,” Trump continued.

Representatives for each of former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden said they had not spoken with Trump recently. Trump and all four past presidents were last together in the same space for his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025 — well before the war.

The United Arab Emirates briefly closed and then reopened its airspace Tuesday, temporarily halting flights in a crucial travel hub, as the country's military said it was facing incoming attacks from Iran.

The temporary disruption came as war in the Middle East continued to rage. The Israeli military early Tuesday reported a salvo of Iranian missiles as sirens sounded south of the Sea of Galilee. No injuries were reported.

The US and Israel had pummelled military targets in Iran's capital a day earlier, with Israel stepping up bombardments of Iran-backed militants in Lebanon.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday said the ongoing conflict involving Iran cannot be resolved through military means and stressed that only a political solution can bring lasting stability.

“Bombing it into submission is, in all likelihood, not the right approach,” to creating a democratic government in Iran, he said. “There will be no military solution here.”

Responding to US President Donald Trump's calls to send warships to police the Strait of Hormuz, Merz said, “NATO is a defensive alliance, not an interventionist one.”

NATO troops deployed for 18 years to Afghanistan and its 2011 air campaign helped topple Libya's late leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Merz also warned Israel that a ground offensive in Lebanon could spur an exodus of refugees.

The German chancellor condemned Hezbollah for entering the conflict “on behalf of Iran” and called on the Lebanese militant group to stop attacking Israel and to disarm.

At the same time, he urged Israel to avoid attacking civilians in Lebanon and said a wider ground war “would further exacerbate the already highly tense humanitarian situation.” “We therefore urge our Israeli friends: Do not take this path,” Merz said of a broader ground offensive. “It would be a mistake.”

Massive explosions were heard in Beirut on Monday as Israel launched new attacks on the Lebanese capital before dawn, saying it was striking infrastructure related to the Iran-linked Hezbollah militia group.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel after the US-Israeli attack of Iran on Feb 28.

The Israeli army has issued evacuation orders for many neighbourhoods in Beirut as well as southern Lebanon.

Russia on Monday renewed its call on all parties involved in the West Asia conflict to immediately cease hostilities and refrain from attacks on civilian infrastructure.

In a statement posted on its web portal, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the loss of civilian lives and suffering in both the Gulf Arab states and Iran must stop.

Moscow also offered its “existing capabilities to facilitate a long-term and sustainable resolution to the conflict”.

"With their treacherous, unprovoked attack on Iran, the United States and Israel have unleashed an unprecedented cycle of violence in the Middle East, with no end in sight,” the ministry said.

Instead of seeking ways to de-escalate and return to negotiations, mutual hostility continues to escalate, with increasingly deadly and destructive strikes being inflicted, it said.

"We renew our urgent call on all parties to immediately cease hostilities and shift the situation to a political and diplomatic framework. Above all, we call on all parties to refrain from attacks on civilian objects and infrastructure and to stop the loss of life and suffering among civilians, both in the Gulf Arab states and in Iran," the statement said.