France is ready to help Gulf countries targeted by Iranian retaliatory strikes, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Monday, adding that the Israeli and US initial strikes against Iran should have been debated beforehand at the United Nations.

"Regarding more specifically our partners in the region who have been targeted, deliberately aimed at by the Iranian regime, we stand ready to contribute to their defense," Barrot told reporters after chairing a crisis meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Paris.

"Based on their request, in a proportionate manner and in accordance with the principle of collective self-defence provided for under international law," he added.

(Reuters)

Qatar has intercepted Iranian attacks that targeted civilian infrastructure, including the international airport, the Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson told CNN on Monday, adding that such attacks could not remain unanswered.

Majed Al Ansari also said that Qatar was not engaging with Iran at the moment.

(Reuters)

Iran's sprawling nuclear facility at Natanz was struck during U.S. and Israeli military operations against the Islamic Republic, Iran's ambassador to the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Monday.

"Again they attacked Iran's peaceful, safeguarded nuclear facilities yesterday," Reza Najafi told reporters at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board of governors. Asked by Reuters which facilities were hit, he replied: "Natanz."

(Reuters)

Saudi Arabia's energy ministry said some operations at its massive Ras Tanura refinery on the Gulf coast had been halted on Monday, following an attack that caused a fire at the complex.

"Some operational units at the refinery were shut down as a precautionary measure, without any impact on the supply of petroleum products to local markets," an official source at the ministry said in a statement published by the Saudi Press Agency. 

(AFP)

Iran's UNESCO-listed Golestan Palace in Tehran has been damaged in US and Israeli strikes, local media reported Monday. 

"Following the joint US-Israeli attack on Arag square in southern Tehran on Sunday evening, parts of the Golestan Palace... were damaged," the ISNA news agency reported, adding that windows, doors, and mirrors were hit by reverberations from blasts. 

Iran's Mehr news agency carried a similar report. 

(AFP)

#BREAKING | Israel prepares for ground offensive in Lebanon
NDTV's @ghazalimohammad reports pic.twitter.com/JMWO2B1NYi

— NDTV (@ndtv) March 2, 2026

Israel's military said Monday it was intensifying its campaign against Iran and would step up strikes on "key elements of the regime".

"We will increasingly strike the key elements of the regime and continue to intensify the damage," military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said during a televised briefing.

(AFP)

France is "ready" to defend Gulf countries and Jordan against Iran if necessary, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Monday.

"To allied countries that have been deliberately targeted by the missiles and drones of the (Iranian) Revolutionary Guards and dragged into a war they did not choose -- Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Jordan -- France expresses its full support and complete solidarity," he said. "It stands ready... to take part in their defence."

France, Germany and the United Kingdom said Sunday they were ready to defend their interests and those of their allies in the Gulf if needed.

(AFP)

Smoke billowed over a power station in northern Kuwait, three witnesses told AFP on Monday, as Iran carried out a third day of retaliatory strikes in the Gulf.

Kuwait was hit hard on Monday with black smoke rising from the US embassy, an AFP correspondent saw, while US warplanes crashed in the country, without causing casualties.

(AFP)

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The Iran conflict killed one Chinese citizen in Tehran, the capital, while more than 3,000 were evacuated, China's foreign ministry said on Monday, as its embassies and consulates in nearby countries swung into action to help the affected.

Work groups set up by Chinese embassies and consulates in neighbouring countries will receive and assist those evacuated, ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a regular press briefing, but did not say how the evacuated would return home.

China was not informed in advance about the US military actions against Iran, Mao added.

She denied a report that Iran and China were close to reaching a deal to buy supersonic anti-ship missiles, saying China was a responsible major power that "always fulfilled its international obligations".

(Reuters)

Israel's military said Monday it was carrying out simultaneous strikes in Iran and Lebanon, warning Lebanese militant group Hezbollah it would "pay a heavy price" for opening fire on Israel.

"Even at this moment, hundreds of Air Force aircraft are striking simultaneously in Lebanon and Iran," military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said during a televised briefing.

"Hezbollah opened fire last night. It knew exactly what it was doing. We had warned it - and it will pay a heavy price."

(AFP)

UN nuclear watchdog head Rafael Grossi on Monday said the situation in the Middle East was "very concerning", urging "utmost restraint" after Israeli-US strikes on Iran and its retaliatory missile attacks.

"I reiterate my call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint to avoid further escalation," Grossi said as he opened a special session on Iran of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

(AFP)

A Saudi oil refinery along the Gulf coast was targeted in an attack on Monday, a source familiar with the incident told AFP, as Iran launched a fresh barrage at countries across the region.

The source said the attack caused a fire at the Ras Tanura refinery but the blaze had already been extinguished. 

A Saudi defence ministry spokesman said two drones had targeted the refinery and been intercepted, according to a statement posted by the Saudi Press Agency on X.

The Ras Tanura complex along the kingdom's eastern Gulf coast is home to one of the largest refineries in the entire Middle East and a cornerstone to the kingdom's energy sector. 

(AFP)