On Thursday, Qatar and other regional powers sought a way to de-escalate the conflict with Iran, following reports of another tanker attack in the Strait of Hormuz, while the Iranian government dismissed the latest sanctions imposed by the Trump administration.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, Israel kept up its attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, even as its strikes on Gaza drew a sharp rebuke from the senior diplomat responsible for overseeing the U.S.-brokered ceasefire in the territory.

Here is a concise overview of the most recent developments in the conflict with Iran and across the wider Middle East.

For comprehensive reporting, further details are available here.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani was in Tehran on Thursday as part of Qatar's efforts to resolve the conflict between the United States and Iran.

Qatar's foreign ministry announced on X that Al Thani's meeting with Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi included discussions on "the efforts being made to reduce escalation," as well as a proposed plan between Iran and Oman to ensure safe passage for ships through the Strait of Hormuz and to clear the vital commercial waterway of dangerous mines.

Al Thani’s office stated that the prime minister underscored the “necessity of respecting the sovereignty of neighboring countries and the freedom of navigation” on the strait.

He also convened with Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian and its parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, on Thursday.

Pakistan announced on Thursday that it was concurrently pursuing diplomatic avenues to facilitate a resolution to the crisis.

The country’s foreign ministry stated that Field Marshal Asim Munir had recently undertaken a visit to Tehran, aimed at revitalizing the June memorandum of understanding concerning the reopening of the strait.

U.S. President Donald Trump told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that he has “no time schedule” to bring the conflict to a close, which will reach the six-month mark on Friday.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organization reported on Thursday that it had received information regarding an oil tanker being struck in the Strait of Hormuz.

The monitoring agency, overseen by the British armed forces, stated that local officials reported the vessel had been struck by an unidentified projectile on Tuesday in the waters between Oman and Iran, igniting a fire aboard.

The UKMTO reported that the crew had been confirmed safe, with no reports of environmental damage having been received to date.

Esmail Baghaei, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, wrote late Wednesday in a social media post that the U.S. had forged a coalition with Bahrain, characterizing the latter as a nation with “virtually no meaningful economic exchange with Iran.”

In another social media post on Wednesday, Iran’s top negotiator and parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf expressed gratitude to China for rejecting the U.S. “economic D-Day” policies against Iran.

Earlier this week, Tehran had cautioned that it would respond forcefully to the expansion of U.S. sanctions, including measures directed at nations it perceives as collaborating with Washington.

According to local health officials, three individuals lost their lives and several others sustained injuries in Gaza on Thursday as a consequence of Israeli strikes.

Two of the casualties succumbed to their injuries in separate strikes on Gaza City, according to officials at Shifa Hospital.

A third individual lost their life, and several others sustained wounds, following an attack on a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the southern part of the enclave, as reported by officials at Nasser Hospital.

The Israeli military stated that two of the strikes had targeted a Hamas militant, while it refrained from offering any immediate commentary on the third.

At a United Nations gathering on Wednesday, Nickolay Mladenov, who heads Trump’s Board of Peace, reproached Israel for its ongoing assaults.

Israel’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Noa Furman, told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that Israel is committed to Trump’s peace plan, but that Hamas’ “disarmament must come first.”

According to a statement from the Dutch foreign ministry, Israel’s foreign ministry is removing two Dutch diplomats from the Gaza ceasefire coordination center.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar stated that the move came in response to “a series of anti-Israel measures taken by the Dutch government,” including the forthcoming implementation next month of a ban on trade in Israeli products originating from the occupied West Bank and other territories.

Tom Berendsen, the Netherlands' foreign minister, stated via email that he considered the expulsion of the two diplomats — one stationed at the embassy in Tel Aviv and the other at the Netherlands Representative Office in Ramallah — to be "unnecessary," yet affirmed that his country remained steadfast in its decision "to ban products from illegal settlements."

The strikes on southern Lebanon on Thursday afternoon came after Israel attributed the launch of two explosive drones to the militant group Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that an airstrike on the village of Arab Salim claimed the life of one woman and left six others wounded, among them a child, within a residential dwelling.

The Israeli military reported that Hezbollah had launched two explosive drones at its troops in the vicinity of the southern city of Nabatiyeh earlier on Thursday, yet the drones caused no casualties among the soldiers before one was intercepted and brought down.

Pakistan's military announced on Thursday that it has reached an agreement to provide Kuwait's armed forces with training, capacity-building support, and assistance in border management.

The Pakistani armed forces announced that the agreement was concluded by Kuwait’s defense minister during his visit to the garrison city of Rawalpindi, a trip centered on bilateral defense ties and security collaboration.

The Gulf states, long accustomed to relying on American protection, have been exploring alternative security arrangements in the aftermath of the conflict between Iran and the United States.

In early August, Saudi Arabia entered into a mutual defense agreement with Pakistan and Turkey.