Iran's foreign minister warned Wednesday its forces would respond immediately and forcefully to any U.S. military operation after President Donald Trump declared time was running out to avoid one, but did not rule out a new deal on Tehran's nuclear program.

The Islamic republic's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi warned its forces have their "fingers on the trigger" to "powerfully respond" to any U.S. strikes, but also used language strikingly similar to Trump's to describe a possible agreement to defuse the stand-off through a new nuclear deal.

The European Union on Thursday announced sanctions on 15 Iranian officials, including top commanders and officials of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, over Tehran's deadly crackdown on nationwide protests.

Six Iranian organizations, including bodies responsible for monitoring online content in Iran, were also included in the sanctions list.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday warned Israel's enemies that they would pay a heavy price if they attacked, speaking at the funeral for the last hostage to be recovered from Gaza.

"We are determined to complete our missions: to disarm Hamas and demilitarize Gaza, and we will succeed. Let our enemies know that anyone who raises a hand against Israel will pay an exorbitant price," he told mourners attending the funeral of Ran Gvili, whose remains were returned to Israel this week.

Israel has pledged an investigation after two Italian security officers were held up by an Israeli soldier with an automatic weapon in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli ambassador to Italy, Jonathan Peled, made the pledge Monday in Rome after he was summoned by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani over the incident, the Italian Foreign Ministry said.

An international media association expressed disappointment after Israel's supreme court again postponed ruling on a petition seeking free and independent press access to Gaza, in a statement sent to media on Wednesday.

Since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, triggered by an attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, the Israeli government has barred foreign journalists from independently entering the blockaded territory.

Iraq's main candidate for the premiership, Nouri al-Maliki, on Wednesday denounced Washington's "blatant interference", after President Donald Trump warned that he would end all support to the country if Maliki took the post.

"We categorically reject the blatant American interference in Iraq's internal affairs," Maliki said on X, adding that "we consider it a violation" of Iraq's "democratic system" after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa will meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, as the Kremlin seeks to secure the future of its military bases in the country.

Putin and Sharaa struck a conciliatory tone at their previous meeting in October, their first since Sharaa's rebel forces toppled Moscow-ally Bashar al-Assad in 2024.

The U.N. Security Council voted Tuesday to terminate a mission that tried to enforce a ceasefire in war-torn Yemen's port city of Hodeida.

"Houthi obstructionism has left the mission without a purpose, and it has to close," said Tammy Bruce of the US delegation, one of 13 on the 15 member council to support ending the mission's mandate.

For more than two years, Israelis wore yellow ribbons to remember the hostages abducted during the deadliest day in the country's history. On Tuesday, they finally could remove those ribbons and shut down a haunting clock in Tel Aviv's Hostages Square, marking the end of a painful chapter.

The return of Ran Gvili, a 24-year-old police officer killed while fighting Hamas militants during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, fulfilled nationwide hopes to return all the hostages, living or dead.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during a call on Tuesday that the Gulf monarchy would not allow attacks on Iran to be launched from its soil.

Prince Mohammed "affirmed during the call the kingdom's position on respecting the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and that the Kingdom will not allow its airspace or its territory to be used for any military actions against" Iran, Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said in a statement.