The killing of three US troops is dragging the United States further into a proxy war with Iran that President Joe Biden had hoped to avoid and that he still hopes can be contained.

China's top diplomat Wang Yi and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan held "candid, substantive" talks in Thailand's capital Bangkok, focusing on the sensitive issues of Taiwan and the attacks in the Red Sea by Huthi rebels, officials said Saturday.

It's Day 105 of the raging war in Gaza, and the conflict has already spilled over into other parts of the Middle East as Hamas allies attack not just Israeli assets but those of its staunch ally, the United States. Other countries in the region are also seeing rising tensions, specifically Iran and Pakistan.

US President Joe Biden said Thursday that air strikes by Pakistan and Iran on each other's territory showed Tehran was not "well-liked", as the White House warned against any escalation.

Iran is barely cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency which feels it is being held "hostage" to the country's disputes with Western countries, IAEA director general Rafael Grossi told AFP on Thursday.

Pakistan said Thursday it carried out strikes against militant targets in Iran, with Tehran reporting a death toll of nine civilians after staging its own air raid in Pakistan earlier this week.

Pakistan denounced the strike, near the nations' shared border late on Tuesday, as "completely unacceptable", saying it was unprovoked.

Thousands of pro-Palestine protesters marched in Washington, London and elsewhere on Saturday as part of a "global day of action" to demand an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza fighting and to oppose US and British support for Israel.

Iran's navy seized a ship off Oman to retaliate for the "theft" of its oil from the same tanker last year by the United States, state media said Thursday.

Iran observed a day of mourning Thursday for the at least 84 people killed when twin blasts ripped through a crowd commemorating the slain Revolutionary Guards general Qasem Soleimani.

Modi had avoided his annual summit with Putin in the last two years after Russia invaded Ukraine. But Putin could be reaching out now.

Among the nations condemning Israel's war in Gaza, one has stood out -- Russia had built a growing friendship with Israel, but that dalliance is over, analysts said, erased by the shifting sands of Middle East geopolitics.

On Day 70 of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli army said it has taken over the headquarters of Hamas' Shuja'iyya Battalion, the same Hamas formation that gave Israeli troops a fierce fight Tuesday, when nine soldiers were killed in a multi-round ambush, including the IDF's highest-ranking official to fall in battle since the war started.

Iranian authorities have accused a Swedish EU diplomat, held in a Tehran prison for more than 600 days, of conspiring with Iran's arch-enemy Israel, the judiciary said Sunday.

A gas-guzzling fossil fuel exporter trying to spearhead more ambitious climate action, the United Arab Emirates remains heavily dependent on hydrocarbons for its prosperity.

There is Trump, there are wannabe Trumps, and then there is Nikki Haley -- the sole woman in the Republican presidential field and now on the cusp of consolidating second place after showing there may be another way than simply aping the main man.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visits Kazakhstan on Thursday, while Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi are expected in Uzbekistan, amid renewed diplomatic interest in the region.

A month after Hamas militants carried out a carnage in southern Israel, the fighting has intensified as hopes of a ceasefire dwindle amid continued bombardments from the warring parties and other Iran-backed proxies jumping into the bloodbath.

From Angola to Hong Kong, North Korea is rapidly shuttering its overseas embassies, as Pyongyang's economy sputters and Kim Jong Un embraces 'new Cold War' diplomacy with Russia, experts say.

Senators voted Tuesday to confirm President Joe Biden's nominee for US ambassador to Israel, filling a crucial posting that had been vacant for months as America's closest ally in the Middle East battles Hamas militants.

The United States said Friday it sought to degrade ammunition supplies of Iranian-linked militias with strikes in Syria but insisted it did not want to widen the Middle East conflict.

Israel has one of the best-resourced militaries in the world, hugely supported by Washington.

A potential intervention by Tehran-backed Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah and uncertainty over the role played by Iran itself are risk factors that could push the unprecedented conflict between Israel and Hamas into a wider regional war, analysts say.

Israel on paper enjoys vast numerical superiority over Palestinian militant group Hamas in terms of forces and hardware but the numbers mask a picture that is far more troubling for the Israeli government, analysts say.

Through quiet diplomacy with Iran, US President Joe Biden's administration had strived to keep a lid on Middle East troubles.

Recent bullish statements by Saudi and Israeli leaders have fuelled speculation that a landmark normalisation deal is in the offing, despite daunting hurdles that have yet to be cleared.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday warned Iran at the United Nations of a "nuclear threat" in what his office quickly walked back as a slip of the tongue.

Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu met Wednesday to smooth over months of tension, eyeing a deal to normalize Israel's ties with Saudi Arabia despite US concerns over the state of Israeli democracy.

Saudi Arabia's de facto leader said Wednesday that a historic normalization of relations with Israel is getting "closer," as he also warned that the kingdom will seek a nuclear weapon if foe Iran gets one first.

US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to smooth over months of tensions as they met for the first time on Wednesday since the Israeli's reelection in December.