Iran's supreme leader told Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday that it was pointless to reply to a message he had brought to Tehran from U.S. President Donald Trump, as a peacemaking visit was overshadowed by attacks on tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said that his country will not take part in Bahrain's conference because Palestinians themselves will not.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday his country was ready to talk with Tehran "with no preconditions", but with no indication lifting sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme is on the table.

The United Nations will not be taking part in a conference in Bahrain to present the economic aspects of a US peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians, a spokesperson said on Thursday.

A US-led conference on economic aspects of a Middle East peace plan will go ahead next month in Bahrain despite Israel's snap elections, the State Department said Thursday.

The Trump administration will go ahead with its Bahrain conference in late June to lay out the economic part of its long-awaited Middle East peace plan, a U.S. official said on Thursday, despite the start of a new Israeli election campaign.

Iran will not negotiate with the United States, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday, after President Hassan Rouhani signaled talks with Washington might be possible if sanctions were lifted.

President Donald Trump's administration is bypassing Congress to sell weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, citing a threat from Iran, despite lawmakers' concerns about their possible use against civilians in Yemen, a senator said Friday.

Palestinian business leaders on Tuesday rebuffed U.S. plans for an economic conference in Bahrain that has become the spearhead of President Donald Trump's Middle East peace plan.

U.S. acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said on Monday he had approved sending a carrier strike group and bombers to the Middle East because of indications of a "credible threat by Iranian regime forces," but did not provide any details on the underlying intelligence.

The U.S. Senate on Thursday sustained President Donald Trump's veto of a resolution demanding an end to military support for the Saudi-led coalition waging war in Yemen, in a victory for the White House's policy of continued backing for the kingdom.

The U.S. State Department has approved a possible $6 billion worth of weapons sales to Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in three separate packages, the Pentagon said on Friday after notifying Congress of the certification.

The new U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, retired general John Abizaid, arrived in Riyadh on Thursday, an embassy statement said, filling a position vacant since President Donald Trump took office more than two years ago.

An annual report issued by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) found that the government continued its discrimination and repression of the Shi'a Muslim community on the basis of their religious identity in certain areas, indicating that Shiites were denied employment.

Iran will continue to export oil despite U.S. pressure aimed at reducing the country's crude shipments to zero, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday.

Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard successfully managed a surveillance flight over a U.S. aircraft carrier, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported Saturday.

Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said that Iran and its people will not forget stances of Saudi Arabian and Bahraini governments in these historic circumstances.

Bahrain News Agency said that Bahrain has welcomed the decision of the US decision regarding the sanctions on importers of Iranian oil.

The United States called on Iran to keep the straits of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab open, a State Department official said on Tuesday after the United States a day earlier demanded that Iran oil buyers halt their purchases by May 1.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday the United States is not extending any waivers exempting importers of Iranian oil from U.S. sanctions and there will be no grace period for those economies to comply.