Image source, Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images

As conflict in the Middle East continues, Pope Leo XIV has been addressing people at the Vatican who are celebrating Palm Sunday today.

The Pope says God rejects the prayers of leaders who start wars and have "hands full of blood", in what has been interpreted as a criticism of those involved in the US-Israeli war with Iran.

"This is our God: Jesus, king of peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” says the Pope.

“He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them.”

Quoting a passage from the Bible, he says: “‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood'."

Image source, Getty Images

Donald Trump has told the Financial Times he could "take the oil in Iran" and possibly seize the country's major fuel hub of Kharg Island.

"To be honest with you, my favourite thing is to take the oil in Iran but some stupid people back in the US say: ‘Why are you doing that?’ But they’re stupid people,” he said.

Trump suggested the move could mean taking Kharg Island. “Maybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don’t. We have a lot of options,” Trump told the FT. “It would also mean we had to be there [in Kharg Island] for a while.”

When asked about Iranian defence on the island he said: "I don’t think they have any defence. We could take it very easily."

The president's comments come as a further 3,500 US troops arrived in the Middle East as fears grow that further escalation could expose American forces to Iranian attacks.

Trump added that indirect talks between US and Iran via Pakistan "emissaries" were progressing well, but declined to comment on whether a ceasefire deal could be reached soon.

“A deal could be made fairly quickly,” he said.

Sebastian Usher
Middle East analyst

Image source, EPA

As we reported earlier, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he's ordered what he called the "existing security zone" in southern Lebanon to be expanded further.

During a visit to the headquarters of the Northern Command of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Netanyahu said the aim was to "definitively thwart the invasion threat" from Hezbollah and push anti-tank missile fire away from the border.

He did not give any detail as to whether this extension goes beyond the zone that last week the Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said would now stretch up to the Litani river, with no Lebanese residents allowed to stay in their homes until the threat from Hezbollah to northern Israel had been entirely removed.

Mr Katz' words were the strongest statement so far of the Israeli government's intentions in Lebanon with a move that puts a tenth of the country under Israeli control.

The extent of the zone and the description of it as a "buffer" are reminders of the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanese territory from 1985 to 2000.

Clashes are continuing in the area between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters, with the IDF saying several members of the group have been killed in recent operations, while another Israeli solder was earlier confirmed to have died - the fifth since Israel launched its latest incursion into Lebanon.

In Kuwait, a worker from India has been killed in an Iranian attack on a power and desalination plant, Kuwait’s Ministry of Electricity and Water says in a statement on X.

The attack caused "significant damage" to the facility, the statement says, and technical teams are working "to ensure the continuity of vital services".

Image source, Getty Images

Pakistan’s foreign minister says both Iran and the US have "expressed confidence in Pakistan to facilitate" talks.

He says Pakistan "will be honoured to host and facilitate meaningful talks between the two sides in the coming days".

However, there was no mention about whether Iran or the US had confirmed they would take part in peace talks.

Foreign minister Ishaq Dar made these comments following the first day of meetings in Islamabad between foreign ministers from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt.

According to Dar, the group discussed possible ways to bring an early and permanent end to the war in the region. He expressed his profound gratitude to all three for their support to Pakistan’s efforts for peace in the region.

Dar also says he had spoken to the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and the Secretary General of the United Nations, both of whom expressed support for the peace initiative.

After a meeting earlier today between Pakistan’s prime minister and Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Pakistan released a separate statement saying Pakistan would "always stand shoulder to shoulder" with Saudi Arabia and that Pakistan appreciated the "remarkable restraint" exercised by the country.

Jonathan Josephs
BBC business reporter

The route through the Red Sea and Suez Canal that is being threatened by Yemen-based Houthis isn’t as important as it once was to global shipping.

It significantly reduces the cost and time for moving goods between where they are made in Asia and where they are sold in Europe.

Before December 2023 it carried approximately 12% of global trade, but then the major shipping companies stopped using it because of Houthi attacks linked to the Hamas-Israel conflict.

They had just started experimenting with using it again when the Iran war broke out, and swiftly abandoned it again.

It means the likes of Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd are sticking to the longer, safer route around the southern tip of Africa.

Those extra costs are ultimately being passed on to consumers, and the longer this conflict carries on, the more that bill will come to.

Whilst some ships, particularly those of smaller companies, may continue to try and navigate the Red Sea route, as Maersk’s CEO Vincent Clerc told me recently: “It's very hard for us to put our colleagues and our ships in harm's way and risk having an attack be successful and create damage or loss of life in the process”.

Ghoncheh Habibiazad
Senior reporter, BBC Persian

Ebrahim Zolfaghari, the spokesperson for Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters - the country's highest operational command unit coordinating the armed forces - has threatened that the armed forces will target the houses of US and Israeli “commanders and political officials in the region".

He says it is a “retaliatory measure” after accusing the US and Israel of “targeting residential homes of Iranian civilians in various cities”.

Several Iranian military commanders and officials have been killed during the war, including Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who was killed on the first day of the war on 28 February.

Oil prices rose to over $115 when markets open in Asia on Monday, just over a month into the war.

The price of Brent crude is $115.84, a 2.9% increase. Oil was trading at around $72 a barrel before 28 February, when the US and Israeli strikes on Iran began.

Last week it peaked at $118 a barrel on 19 March and as of Friday afternoon was sitting at just below $112 - significantly up from its pre-war price.

Here is what else has happened recently as our live coverage continues:

• Ebrahim Zolfaghari, the spokesperson for Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters - the country's highest operational command unit coordinating the armed forces - has threatened that the armed forces will target the houses of US and Israeli “commanders and political officials in the region".
• The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it is striking targets across Iran's capital, Tehran, not long after heavy explosions were reported in the city
• Iran’s Ministry of Energy says attacks on the country's "electricity infrastructure" caused power cuts in parts of the Tehran and Albroz provinces, but power seems to have been restored in most areas

• In southern Israel, firefighters have now contained a large blaze in the Neot Hovav industrial zone, where a "hazardous materials incident" was declared earlier. The IDF say it may have been caused by missile shrapnel
• Despite the steady attacks exchanged, Iran and US have "expressed confidence" in peace talks, says Pakistan's foreign minister

• Meanwhile in Lebanon, a Beirut-based American university is operating virtually after Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) threatened to target US and Israeli universities. It comes after two Iranian universities were struck in US-Israeli strikes on Saturday - the one in Isfahan was struck again on Sunday
• Lebanon has also seen the funerals of three Lebanese journalists killed in a targeted Israeli air strike - hundreds have gathered to mourn their deaths
• Attacks have been reported across the Gulf - including Kuwait, where 10 army personnel were injured as a result. In Saudi Arabia, photos appear to show a heavily damaged US military jet at an American air base