International from Tuesday, March 17th, 2026

Iran has confirmed the death of senior political figure Ali Larijani, a key member of the country’s security establishment, amid ongoing regional conflict.

Medical supplies to clinics dealing with the humanitarian crisis in Sudan could run out within two weeks unless shipments are rapidly rerouted after disruptions due to the conflict in the Middle East, the charity Save the Children said.

President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday France would never take part in operations to unblock the Strait of Hormuz, pushing back on comments by U.S. President Donald Trump that Paris was willing to help.

The head of the National Counterterrorism Center Joseph Kent resigned on Tuesday, becoming the first and most senior member of US President Donald Trump's administration to resign over the war in Iran, saying Tehran posed no imminent threat to the United States.

An Israeli airstrike killed at least three people in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, local health authorities said, the latest violence jeopardising the ceasefire which has been under strain during the Israeli-US war against Iran.

Israel claimed on Tuesday to have killed Iran's security chief, while a senior Iranian official said the new supreme leader had rejected de-escalation offers conveyed by intermediaries.

Civilians are paying a heavy price as the war in Lebanon continues to expand, driving death, injuries and displacement the United Nations said on Tuesday.

A UN inquiry has started investigating a fatal strike on a primary school on the first day of US-Israeli attacks on Iran, one of its members told reporters on Tuesday.

 At least 23 people have been killed and 108 injured in suspected multiple bomb attacks in Maiduguri city, capital of Nigeria's insurgency-hit northeastern state of Borno, the state police command said in a statement late on Monday.

Qatar's Ministry of Interior has announced that its civil defence forces are responding to a fire that broke out at its industrial area on Tuesday due to fallen shrapnel from a missile interception.

A "significant Israeli ground offensive" in Lebanon must be averted since it could have devastating humanitarian consequences, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Britain have said in a joint statement on Monday.

At least 400 people have been killed and 250 injured in an air strike by Pakistan on a drug users' rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, a spokesman of the Afghan Taliban government said on Tuesday, a sharp escalation in the conflict between the neighbours.

Kuwaiti security authorities have uncovered and arrested a cell linked to the banned organisation Hezbollah that was planning to destabilise the country and recruit new members.