Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Friday it was time to end the months-long Middle East war with the United States because Tehran was in a position of strength over Washington.

Talks between the decades-old foes remain on hold, with both sides in the war started by the U.S. and Israel in February locked in a stalemate.

A summer of extreme heat has left many Tunisians short of water and electricity — and full of anger at the country's leadership. Protesters rallied in the capital Tunis on Thursday, many calling on President Kais Saied to leave power.

Mobilized by a new opposition collective, the demonstrators pleaded for improvements to basic utility services and an end to medicine shortages, rising living costs and restrictions on freedoms. Some denounced what they described as the president's failure to meet the people's demands since he was elected seven years ago.

Nearing the six-month mark of the Iran war and facing diminishing stockpiles of key weapons, the Trump administration is touting a crushing financial campaign against Tehran, promising an "economic D-Day" against a country that has so far withstood nearly five decades of punishing American sanctions.

With sparse details, President Donald Trump announced this week that the U.S. would be imposing an "unprecedented" level of economic warfare and isolation on Iran, aiming to force its leadership to cave to demands to end its nuclear program and fully reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz to oil and natural gas tankers.

Israel's foreign minister on Thursday slammed a demand by the UK government to halt a major settlement project in the occupied West Bank, after Israeli authorities opened bidding for more than 1,200 homes in the area.

Israelis began moving into the occupied West Bank settlement of Kadim on Thursday, the local settler council said, the last of four communities from which Israel withdrew more than two decades ago to be repopulated.

Turkey on Thursday denied having any military presence at an air base in north Syria struck by Israel earlier this week, and vowed to continue "resolutely" supporting Syrian sovereignty.

A Syrian police investigator who slapped a man during interrogation despite having been warned that he had hemophilia will face prosecution, officials said Thursday.

Syria's interior ministry earlier this week launched an investigation into the death of Mohammad Ghamira and on Thursday announced initial results of the probe.

Israel's defense minister on Thursday accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of dragging Turkey into "dangerous adventures in Syria", after Israel tacitly acknowledged a strike on a north Syria air base earlier in the week.

U.S. President Donald Trump pledged "economic warfare" against Iran and threatened any country that trades with it, prompting Iran to dismiss the plan on Thursday as a continuation of failed policies.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf arrived in neighboring Iraq Wednesday for a three-day visit where he will meet with Iraqi officials and leaders of an Iran-backed political coalition.

Iran-backed Iraqi militias have launched and claim drone attacks targeting U.S. bases and diplomatic presence both within the country and abroad, piling the pressure on Baghdad which for years has delicately tried to maintain strong ties between both Washington and Tehran. President Donald Trump last month welcomed his Iraqi counterpart Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi at the White House, showering him with praise.