Venezuela oil reserves both entice and repel energy giants

Chinese artificial intelligence powerhouse and TikTok creator ByteDance has quietly rolled out its latest video generator SeeDance 2.0 worldwide, while its US rival OpenAI called time on a similar product.

The SeeDance 2.0 model was launched in China last month, both stunning and spooking the entertainment industry with its ability to produce near-Hollywood-quality clips from simple text prompts.

However, it has also sparked concerns over copyright infringement

"We have further expanded Dreamina Seedance 2.0 in more markets in CapCut today, across Africa, South America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, with more regions coming soon," CapCut, ByteDance's popular video editing tool, posted on X on Thursday.

It said the SeeDance 2.0 model would initially be available to some paid users.

The rollout includes "firm safeguards" to prevent violations of its safety policies, including the unauthorised use of individuals' likenesses or intellectual property, CapCut said.

Major Hollywood production studios including Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros and Netflix, have threatened legal action against Beijing-based ByteDance over accusations of copyright infringement.

Reports this month suggested that backlash had prompted ByteDance to pause SeeDance 2.0's global launch.

It was not immediately clear if ByteDance had resolved those legal issues. The United States is not among the current rollout markets.

ByteDance, which runs popular short video platforms TikTok and Douyin, has invested heavily in AI in recent years against a backdrop of increasing global regulatory scrutiny of such platforms.

ByteDance announced on Friday the sale of Moonton, an important gaming asset, to a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia's sovereign fund for more than $6 billion.

Moonton runs Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, one of Southeast Asia's most popular gaming titles.

ByteDance's move coincides with a broader shift in the AI industry towards more "agentic" tools that focus on performing practical, real-life tasks.

US AI giant OpenAI said on Tuesday it was shutting down its popular consumer-facing video-generating service Sora, a move widely understood to focus more on providing business users with agentic AI capacities.

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Israel struck new targets across Iran on Thursday, after Tehran rejected US overtures to wind down the nearly four-week Middle East war and vowed to keep up its "resistance".

Hopes for a negotiated end to the US-Israeli war with Iran -- which has mushroomed to engulf much of the Middle East -- rose after the United States was said to have put a 15-point peace plan to Tehran.

But the Islamic republic's top diplomat flatly denied any "negotiations" with President Donald Trump's administration late Wednesday -- conceding only that messages were being exchanged through "friendly countries".

"At present, our policy is the continuation of resistance", Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on state TV, adding: "We do not intend to negotiate -- so far, no negotiations have taken place."

Under near-daily bombardment since the joint US-Israeli attack that started the war on February 28, Iran was hit early Thursday by what the Israeli army called "wide-scale" strikes targeting infrastructure.

Local media reported attacks in the central cities of Isfahan and Shiraz, as well as Bandar Abbas in the south, Tabriz in the northwest and Mashhad in the northeast -- an area largely spared until now.

Iran, in turn, kept up its retaliatory attacks on Israel, where medics said six people were lightly wounded by missile attacks in the country's centre.

Fresh violence also flared in the Gulf, with two people killed by debris from an Iranian ballistic missile intercepted near Abu Dhabi, while Saudi Arabia said it shot down at least 18 drones, and Kuwait reported a new missile and drone attack.

Iran has targeted Gulf nations it accuses of serving as launchpads for US strikes, notably with hits on energy sites that have sent markets into a tailspin, threatening lasting damage to the global economy.

- Rival conditions -

Crude prices have fallen since last week, as Trump appears to step back from the goal of regime change.

But the divergent messages on talks and de-escalation saw oil prices rise Thursday and equities mixed, as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz -- through which 20 percent of the world's oil and gas passes -- continued to cast a shadow.

Tehran has largely blocked the vital strait in retaliation for the US-Israeli attacks -- with "maritime routes" a key element of the US proposal to end the fighting, according to The New York Times, along with Iran's nuclear and missile programmes.

Details of the purported 15-point plan emerged via Pakistan, where two officials said Islamabad had passed it on to Tehran.

But Iran's state-controlled Press TV cited an unidentified official as saying Tehran had "responded negatively", and instead put forward its own five conditions for hostilities to end.

These include guarantees that the United States and Israel do not resume the war and compensation for damages.

Trump insisted at a dinner with lawmakers Wednesday night that Tehran wanted to "make a deal" -- but was covering up ongoing talks out of fear.

"They're afraid to say it, because they figure they'll be killed by their own people," he told a dinner with lawmakers. "They're also afraid they'll be killed by us."

The White House has declined to identify its interlocutor in Tehran following the assassination of supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

The late leader's son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen since ascending to the role.

- No Lebanon 'surrender' -

Pro-Iran Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on March 2 to avenge Khamenei's killing, drawing Lebanon into the war.

The militant group said its fighters launched more than 80 attacks against Israel on Wednesday, the largest daily number in the current war, and attacked Israeli forces in nine border towns.

As the fighting showed little sign of stopping, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military had "created a genuine security zone" in southern Lebanon, where an Israeli soldier was killed in the fighting on Thursday.

Hezbollah meanwhile launched a new volley of missiles early Thursday at military sites in central Israel, after its chief Naim Qassem said negotiations with Israel would amount to "surrender".

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Spanish singer Rosalia was forced to interrupt a concert in Italy half way through due to food poisoning, according to fan footage posted on social media.

The 33-year-old Grammy-winning singer was performing at the Unipol Forum in Milan on Wednesday, when she stopped to tell the crowds she was feeling unwell.

"I've tried to do this show. Since the beginning I've been sick. I've had big time food poisoning," she said in English in a video posted on X.

"I've tried to push it until the end, but I'm feeling extremely sick. I'm puking out there. I really want to give the best show, and I'm like in (on) the floor," she said.

After saying she would try to carry on if physically possible, a sad-looking Rosalia eventually blew a kiss to the crowds and -- with a hand on her stomach -- walked off stage.

Rosalia, hailed for her genre-defying versatility, was in Milan as part of a tour which began in France earlier this month and will end in Puerto Rico in September.

The singer, who won best international artist at the Brit Awards this month, has earned widespread praise for her fourth album "Lux".

The sweeping, spiritual work, released at the end of last year, marks a departure from her previous flamenco and R&B rhythms.

The album features lyrics sung in 13 languages including German, English and Sicilian in addition to her native Spanish.

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A Nepal commission has recommended the prosecution of ex-prime minister KP Sharma Oli in connection to the deadly September 2025 uprising that toppled his government, according to a leaked report.

At least 77 people were killed in the anti-corruption youth uprising on September 8 and 9, which began over a brief social media ban but tapped into longstanding fury over economic hardship.

Four-time prime minister and Marxist leader Oli, 74, was defeated in the polls this month by the 35-year-old rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah, whose Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) won in a landslide after promising to oust an ageing elite, stem corruption and fix the economy.

The commission's recommendations, set out in a report leaked by Nepali media, came ahead of the swearing-in later on Thursday of newly elected members of parliament.

"It was decided to recommend to the Government of Nepal that an investigation, inquiry, and prosecution be carried out against the then executive head, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli," according to a copy of the report seen by AFP on Thursday.

At least 19 young people were killed in a crackdown on the first day of protests.

No one has been convicted over the killings.

- 'Negligent conduct' -

Former interior minister Ramesh Lekhak and ex-police chief Chandra Kuber Khapung should also be investigated and prosecuted, according to the recommendations in the report.

Lekhak bore "overall responsibility for home administration, security agencies, and maintaining law and order", the report said, adding that he and Oli "did not appear to have made any effort on the afternoon... to prevent further human casualties".

The report said it was "not established that there was an order to shoot", but "no effort was made to stop or control the firing and, due to their negligent conduct, even minors lost their lives".

The report said victims in 48 out of 63 completed autopsies died of bullet wounds, and that the majority were struck in their chest or head.

The nationwide unrest in September saw the parliament and government offices being set ablaze and led to Oli's ouster.

Former chief justice Sushila Karki took on the role of interim prime minister and established a commission to investigate the violence.

The commission's report was submitted this month and protesters have demanded that its findings be released.

Commission member Bigyan Raj Sharma told reporters the team had questioned more than 200 people and submitted a 900-page report -- with more than 8,000 additional pages of evidence.

Karki's office said on Wednesday evening that she would release the report but the official version was not out yet.

The March 5 election returned a new 275-seat lower house of parliament, with the RSP winning a commanding majority of 182. 

New lawmakers will take the oath of office later on Thursday in the newly constructed parliament building, parliament secretariat spokesman Ekram Giri told AFP.

Shah, popularly known as Balen, is expected to be sworn in as prime minister on Friday.

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Foreign ministers from the G7 meet outside Paris from Thursday with European nations and allies seeking to narrow differences with the US on the Middle East war while keeping other crises like Ukraine and Gaza high on the agenda. 

The two-day meeting of seven leading industrialised democracies at the Vaux-de-Cernay Abbey in the countryside outside Paris comes as the White House said President Donald Trump is ready to "unleash hell" if Iran does not accept a deal to end the US-Israeli war against the Islamic republic.

Making his first trip abroad since the war started, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will join fellow top diplomats from Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Japan and the UK, but only on the second day.

One of the objectives of France, which holds the rotating G7 presidency this year, is "to address the major global imbalances which explain in many respects the level of tension and rivalry we are witnessing with very concrete consequences for our fellow citizens," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told AFP on Tuesday.

With Lebanon pulled into the war as Iran-backed Shia militant group Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel, Barrot also urged Israel to "refrain" from sending in forces to take control of a zone in south Lebanon.

In a bid to broaden the scope of the elite G7 club -- whose origins go back to the first G6 summit held in the nearby Chateau de Rambouillet in 1975 -- France has also invited foreign ministers from key emerging markets Brazil and India as well as Ukraine, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

France will also on Monday host a separate G7 meeting bringing together finance ministers, energy ministers and central bank governors, Finance Minister Roland Lescure told RTL radio on Thursday.

The meeting, to be held via video call, will address what Lescure described as a "convergence of energy issues, economic issues and inflation issues".

-'Misguided policies'-

While all G7 nations are close US allies, none have unambiguously offered support for the assault on Iran, angering Trump.

German Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil even complained Trump's "misguided policies" in the Middle East were hitting Germany's economy.

Trump has claimed the US is speaking to a "top person" within Iran's clerical system in talks to end the conflict. But Iranian state TV said on Wednesday Tehran had rejected a peace plan conveyed through Pakistan.

Trump's threat to hit Iranian energy facilities -- which he is now holding back on amid the purported talks -- troubled European allies who have all called for de-escalation and not engaged militarily in the conflict.

British foreign minister Yvette Cooper on Tuesday voiced unease that the war had shifted focus away from the Gaza peace plan and violence in the occupied West Bank.

Over four years into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Barrot told AFP that support "for the Ukrainian resistance" and pressure on Russia would continue.

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European Union lawmakers are on track to give a green light -- with conditions -- Thursday to the bloc's tariff deal with US President Donald Trump, which Europe hopes to salvage while also racing to diversify its trade ties around the globe.

Brussels and Washington clinched the deal last summer that had set tariffs at 15 percent for most EU goods.

But Trump's 2025 tariff blitz, including hefty levies on steel, aluminium and car parts, has jolted the 27-country bloc into cultivating trade ties around the world.

From deals signed with South America to Australia, the EU has its eyes on many prizes.

But that doesn't mean the EU intends to walk away from the 1.6 trillion euro ($1.9 trillion) relationship with its main trade partner, the United States.

The European Parliament is voting Thursday on whether to cut EU tariffs on some US imports -- as a first step towards implementing the 2025 deal -- but with additional safeguards.

The potential green light comes after months of delay as lawmakers resisted approving the accord due to transatlantic tensions over Greenland -- and then put it on hold again following the US Supreme Court's ruling striking down Trump's levies.

The ball started rolling again after the European Commission, in charge of EU trade policy, said it would stick to the pact despite the US ruling and called on lawmakers to do the same, having received reassurances from Washington.

Trump, however, retaliated after the ruling with a new tariff regime -- pushing EU lawmakers to tighten the existing agreement with numerous safeguards.

- Losing access to US energy? -

Lawmakers leading on trade have added several provisions: making an EU tariff reduction automatically lapse in March 2028, and tying tariff cuts on steel and aluminium goods to similar reductions by the US side. 

Not all members of the parliament are convinced. French EU lawmakers from the centrist Renew group have said they will vote against the agreement. 

"The only political value this agreement had to offer was stability and predictability, even if many say it's an unfair deal. If it no longer even provides predictability, there's no reason to support the deal, even if it has been improved," said MEP Pascal Canfin.

The United States has urged the bloc to implement the agreement. 

Washington's ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder told the Financial Times that if the bloc delayed further, it risked losing "favourable" access to US liquefied natural gas at a time when the Middle East war has led to surging energy costs.

Before the US tariff deal is implemented by the bloc, it still needs to be negotiated with EU member states -- although Brussels hopes talks will go quickly.

- 'Trump factor' -

It is the EU's vulnerability to the consequences of wars and other shocks that has pushed Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen to make diversifying trading partners a priority, to cut overdependence on the United States and China.

The frenzy began with a long-awaited accord signed with the South American Mercosur bloc in January. Weeks later, Brussels struck another pact with India and just this week clinched a stalled deal with Australia.

"The Trump factor sped up their conclusion, for us as well as for our partners," economist Andre Sapir said. 

Spurred by Trump, Sapir said, the EU has been pushing to create the world's largest network of free trade areas -- a strategy with a "defensive dimension" allowing it to resist trade "coercion".

"This free trade network carries weight in our discussions with the two giants, the United States and China," he said.

"These agreements are part of our arsenal," Sapir, of the Bruegel think tank, added. "Our strategic weapons in the international order."

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Hundreds of Somali spectators cheered as they watched two teams of young women play football in a Mogadishu stadium -- an unimaginable scene in the conservative, conflict-hit country just a few years ago. 

Such events were heavily threatened until recently in Somalia's capital by the Al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group Al-Shabaab, which frowns on entertainment like football, especially when played by women. 

But while Al-Shabaab still has a powerful grip behind the scenes in Mogadishu, the security situation has markedly improved. 

At Tuesday's match, the main stand was mostly segregated but nonetheless included some men and women sitting together. 

The Ilays women's team ultimately crushed their opponents Nasiib 5-0, but that did not dampen the mood. 

"If you were in Mogadishu a couple of years ago, an occasion like this, with two girls' football clubs playing, would not have been possible... but with time, things are improving," said Ali Muhidin, one of the spectators. 

The women's football championship was created in 2024, and initially involved only 80 players. But barely two years later, 600 are participating across 10 teams -- mostly from Mogadishu, but also other parts of the country. 

"No one could have imagined that one day Somali women would play football in their country, where even men were forbidden to play by fighters who had declared football 'un-Islamic'," said Ali Abdi Mohamed, president of the Somali Football Federation. 

"But something we couldn't even dream of has become a reality," he told AFP. 

Not everyone in the largely conservative Muslim country allows their daughters to play, he conceded, but they have faced no serious complaints. 

Somalis have long been passionate fans of European football, but local teams have been neglected. Somalia is currently ranked 200th in the FIFA men's rankings, ahead of only a handful of microstates. 

Its women's team, which played its first friendly match in October in Djibouti, is not listed by the international federation. 

But this should change soon, as the "Ocean Queens" are preparing for their first-ever international tournament -- an under-17s event in May in Tanzania. 

"For women to play football is not shameful or taboo," said Ramas Abdi Salah, midfielder for the Ocean Queens, who, like her teammates, wears thick tights and a long-sleeved shirt under her sports kit, as well as a black headscarf to cover her hair. 

"As you can see, I'm fully covered except for my face and my hands. I haven't received any bad comments," said the 17-year-old, who added she has her family's approval. 

Goalkeeper Najma Ali Ahmed had a rough game on Tuesday, letting in five goals. 

But it will take a lot more than that to lose the love of the game. 

"I'm sending a message to female footballers to work toward the dream of joining the national team," she said.

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President Donald Trump's administration is pushing to open Venezuela's untapped natural resources to US investment

but the oil-rich Latin American country's outdated infrastructure is

making energy giants think twice about going all-in. 

Since US forces captured Venezuela's former leader Nicolas Maduro in a stunning raid on January 3, Trump officials have worked closely with Caracas to bang the drum for foreign investment in oil, gas and mining.  

The chief executives of energy companies, however, remain divided on the matter.

Mike Wirth, the CEO of Chevron -- the only international company to operate in Venezuela in recent years -- said at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston this week: "We're seeing signs of progress."

"There's still things that I think need to happen to encourage investment on the scale that people would like to see," he added.

Shell chief Wael Sawan said he was "encouraged," but cautioned "we still have a long way to go" on oil projects.

He said the company was in talks for gas-related endeavors.

While ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods has previously dismissed Venezuela as "uninvestable," his fellow executive Dan Ammann said a team for the company is assessing options, though he noted it would require "probably hundreds of millions of dollars of investment." 

Chevron's Wirth went further, suggesting it would take "tens of billions of dollars" to get Venezuela's oil production up to the three million barrels of oil per day it produced during its peak two decades ago.

- 'Kick the tires' -

Jorge Pinon, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin's Energy Institute, said oil giants were sending small teams to Venezuela to "kick the tires." 

"They're trying to find out what the state of the pipeline is," he told AFP.

"How much money is it going to take to be sure that the existing infrastructure is ready for delivery?"

"Do we have the logistics? Do we have the pipeline? Do we have the wealth? Who owns them? Remember that the Chinese and the Russians still have joint ventures in Venezuela," he continued.

Despite having the largest known oil reserves in the world, years of underinvestment, lack of maintenance and US sanctions have strangled oil production in the South American country. 

Under pressure from Washington, Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodriguez pushed through a major reform of the country's hydrocarbon laws in January, opening up the sector to private and foreign investment. 

US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told industry leaders at CERAWeek on Wednesday: "They (Venezuela) want to be competitive to attract investment from all of you."

- Millions of barrels? -

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado told AFP on Tuesday: "The opening of the oil sector, as we're proposing it, has never been seen in the country." 

"That is, going 100 percent private, where the state assumes a regulatory role and incentivizes, promotes and protects foreign investment," she said. 

Machado said in a speech at CERAWEEK on Wednesday that Venezuela's oil production capacity could reach as high as five million barrels per day.

"And reaching that potential certainly requires a lot of resources, which we estimate above $150 billion in the next 10 years," she added. 

"This is the kind of long-cycle, large-scale commitment that the companies in this room are built to make when the right conditions are in place." 

Machado said she was willing to participate in Venezuela's next election cycle. 

But researcher Pinon warned that Venezuela's hydrocarbons law could be amended by a future government.

Lawmakers could argue that "the last assembly that was there and put these new rules into place was not a legitimate assembly. They were not really elected by the people of Venezuela," he said.

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The gaping holes torn in a road to Mandalay by last year's devastating earthquake have been filled in, and the route in northern Myanmar partly resurfaced.

But only a few of the broken spans of the historic Ava Bridge have been removed, while the others still droop into the river where hundreds of newly homeless people bathed in the aftermath of the disaster.

More than 3,800 people in Myanmar -- and around 90 more in neighbouring Thailand -- were killed when the 7.7-magnitude tremor struck on March 28, 2025.

AFP was the only international news agency on the ground in Myanmar's capital Naypyidaw when the quake hit, with its team the first international journalists to reach the city of Mandalay.

A year on, reporters returning to the affected areas found a mixed picture of reconstruction work.

In Naypyidaw, the collapsed concrete awning of the main hospital's emergency department -- which crushed a car when it came down -- has been replaced with a new, lighter structure, with a plastic roof.

A rare unguarded photo of junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, looking flustered as he sought to direct rescue efforts at the hospital, was one of many by AFP that captured the destruction after the quake, which came during a years-long civil war. 

Mandalay, an ancient royal capital hemmed by jungle-clad mountains and the snaking Irrawaddy river, bore the brunt of the damage.

At a pagoda in the suburb of Amarapura, a statue of a reclining Buddha emerges from a carefully arranged pile of brick rubble, its face respectfully cleaned.

"Some are rebuilding their houses, while others are just now getting the support they need to work and live," said board secretary Hsan Tun, 70.

Four people died at the pagoda, he added, including a girl who was meditating. "It's only by the Buddha's protection that we survived."

Almost all of Mandalay's flattened or toppled residential buildings have been cleared away, some of them already rebuilt and others remaining as fenced-off empty lots dotting the city.

The tilted-over towers overlooking the palace moat have all been brought back upright, and workers are building new brick castellations for their supporting ramparts.

After the quake, thousands of people whose homes had been made uninhabitable or who feared aftershocks slept out for weeks by the moat, but it is once again the preserve of morning joggers and sightseers.

- 'When the sky falls' -

Some of the buildings at the Thahtay Kyaung monastery, where saffron-clad monks cleared rubble from the wreckage by hand in the days after the quake, have been razed.

"People are facing many economic hardships," said the abbot, U Thudassa. "Like the saying, 'When the sky falls, it falls on everyone'."

"We build as much as we can with what we have," added the 70-year-old. "We cannot just stand still; natural disasters will always be a part of life."

At Amarapura's Nagayon Pagoda, a Buddha statue reduced to just two legs and hands on a pedestal has been fully restored, looking out with a serene gaze.

In nearby Bon Oe village, the quake caused a mosque to collapse onto worshippers gathered for the noon prayer on the last Friday of Ramadan, killing many.

A permanent replacement has yet to be erected -- government approval is needed for religious buildings, and it has not yet been granted. 

Instead, men gather for evening prayers in a temporary structure covered in green tarpaulins and with palm leaves for a roof.

"Yesterday marked one year" since disaster struck, said mosque leader Khin Maung Naing, counting by the Islamic calendar. 

"Everyone still trembles at any loud noise," he added.

"Even after a year, the tremor, the scenes and the feelings from that earthquake feel as if they happened only yesterday or the day before. To this day, it remains in my heart."

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Israel launched strikes across Iran on Thursday, hours after US President Donald Trump said Tehran wanted a deal to end the nearly four-week war despite its top diplomat rejecting any talks with Washington.

The conflict has mushroomed to draw in nations around the Middle East, sending energy markets into a tailspin and threatening to torpedo the global economy.

Iran, under near-daily bombardment since a joint US-Israeli attack started the war on February 28, was hit early Thursday by what the Israeli army said was "a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting infrastructure", including in the central city of Isfahan.

In turn, an Iranian missile attack activated sirens across central Israel including Tel Aviv and parts of Jerusalem on Thursday morning, according to the Israeli military, the first launches it identified from Iran in more than 14 hours.

Trump, whose daily statements have swung wildly from threatening to conciliatory, said talks to end the war were ongoing with Iran, but that officials in Tehran were covering them up out of fear.

"They are negotiating, by the way, and they want to make a deal so badly," Trump told a dinner for Republican members of Congress.

"But they're afraid to say it, because they figure they'll be killed by their own people," he said. "They're also afraid they'll be killed by us."

The Islamic republic's top diplomat slapped down Trump's comments, saying the country did not intend to negotiate.

"We seek an end to the war on our own terms, of course, and in a way that it will not be repeated here again," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told state TV.

Pakistan has passed on a 15-point US plan to stop the fighting to Tehran, two officials in Islamabad said. 

But Iran's state-controlled Press TV cited an unidentified official saying Tehran had "responded negatively" to the proposal.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump "does not bluff and he is prepared to unleash hell" on Iran if no deal is struck.

China's top diplomat Wang Yi meanwhile said Thursday that signs both sides could be open to talks offered a "glimmer of hope" for peace.

- Iranian conditions -

According to The New York Times, the 15-point US plan touches on Iran's contested nuclear and missile programs as well as "maritime routes".

Tehran has largely blocked the vital Strait of Hormuz oil route in retaliation for the US-Israeli attacks, pushing up global energy prices.

The Iranian official quoted by Press TV said Tehran had put forward its own five conditions for hostilities to end.

These include guarantees that the United States and Israel do not resume the war and compensation for war damages.

Iranians marched in support of the country's military in the capital Tehran on Wednesday, waving the country's flag and holding pictures of new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei.

The head of the US Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, said on Wednesday that Washington has hit two-thirds of Iran's production facilities for missiles and drones, and a similar proportion of its naval production.

Iran has still kept up retaliatory attacks on Israel and Gulf nations that it accuses of serving as launchpads for US strikes.

Saudi Arabia said it intercepted at least 18 drones, while the United Arab Emirates responded to a new missile and drone attack and Bahrain reported a fire at a facility caused by "Iranian aggression", without providing further details.

Kuwait also reported a new missile and drone attack on Thursday, a day after a drone hit a fuel tank and sparked a fire at Kuwait International Airport.

- No Lebanon 'surrender' -

The war has also drawn in Lebanon after pro-Iran Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on March 2 to avenge Khamenei's killing.

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem said negotiations with Israel would amount to "surrender", before the group launched missiles early Thursday at military sites in central Israel, where air raid sirens sounded.

The militant group said its fighters launched more than 80 attacks against Israel on Wednesday, the largest daily number in the current war, and attacked Israeli forces in nine border towns.

As the fighting showed little sign of respite, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military had "created a genuine security zone" in southern Lebanon and was expanding it.

"We are simply creating a larger buffer zone" that could prevent a ground invasion of Israel and missile attacks, he said in a video shared by his office.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on both sides to stop fighting.

- Markets mixed -

With thousands more US troops reportedly headed to the Middle East, Iran also threatened to open a new front by targeting Red Sea shipping should the United States launch a ground invasion.

In the event of a US ground invasion, Iran would block the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, an unnamed military official told local media.

The divergent messages on talks and de-escalation saw oil prices rise Thursday and equities mixed as developments were tracked by investors recently buoyed by Trump appearing to step back from the goal of regime change earlier in the week.

But while crude prices are down from last week, uncertainty and the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz -- through which 20 percent of oil and gas passes -- continued to cast a shadow.

Araghchi assured the strait was "closed only to enemies" of Iran.

"There is no reason to allow the ships of our enemies and their allies to pass," he said.

Pakistan's defence minister, whose government has offered to host talks between Iranian and American envoys to stop the war, appeared to take a jab at the US operation that has closed the key waterway.

"The goal of the war seems to have shifted to opening the Strait of Hormuz, which was open before the war," Khawaja Asif posted on X, alongside hand-clapping emojis.

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