At the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace in Washington, President Donald Trump spoke of billions of dollars pledged to rebuild the Gaza Strip and a "new and harmonious" Middle East rising from the ashes of war. Videos aired at the meeting showed a future of gleaming high-rises and new soccer pitches.

There was no sign of such optimism in Gaza, where Palestinians who have spent months or even years in squalid displacement camps or the rubble of their homes hold out little hope for change.

Saudi Arabia could have some form of uranium enrichment within the kingdom under a proposed nuclear deal with the United States, congressional documents and an arms control group suggest, raising proliferation concerns as an atomic standoff between Iran and America continues.

U.S. Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden both tried to reach a nuclear deal with the kingdom to share American technology. Nonproliferation experts warn any spinning centrifuges within Saudi Arabia could open the door to a possible weapons program for the kingdom, something its assertive crown prince has suggested he could pursue if Tehran obtains an atomic bomb.

Iran has warned that U.S. bases, facilities and assets would be "legitimate targets" if the United States follows through on its military threats and attacks.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Iran must make a "meaningful deal" in negotiations with Washington in the next 10 days or else "bad things happen", as he deployed warships, fighter jets and other military hardware to the region.

U.S. President Donald Trump promised $10 billion and Muslim-majority nations offered funding and troops for Gaza as he inaugurated his "Board of Peace," a new institution whose ultimate mission has drawn questions.

Clashes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank killed a 19-year-old Palestinian-American man late Wednesday night, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

The ministry said Nasrallah Muhammad Jamal Abu Siyam was shot by settlers in the village of Mukhmas, north of Jerusalem.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans to travel to Israel next week to update Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the U.S.-Iran nuclear talks, two Trump administration officials said.

Rubio is expected to meet with Netanyahu on Feb. 28, according to the officials, who spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity to detail travel plans that have not yet been announced.

President Donald Trump will gather Thursday with representatives from more than two dozen countries that have joined his Board of Peace — and several that have opted not to — for an inaugural meeting that will focus on reconstruction and building an international stabilization force for a war-battered Gaza, where a shaky ceasefire deal persists.

Trump announced ahead of the meeting that board members have pledged $5 billion for reconstruction, a fraction of the estimated $70 billion needed to rebuild the Palestinian territory decimated after two years of war. Members are expected to unveil commitments of thousands of personnel to international stabilization and police forces for the territory.

Iran and the United States leaned into gunboat diplomacy Thursday as nuclear talks between the nations hung in the balance, with Tehran holding drills with Russia and the Americans bringing another aircraft carrier closer to the Mideast.

The Iranian drill and the arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier near the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea underscore the tensions between the nations. Iran earlier this week also launched a drill that involved live-fire in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow opening of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the world's traded oil passes.

Iran's atomic energy chief Mohammad Eslami said Thursday that no country can deprive the Islamic republic of its right to nuclear enrichment, after U.S. President Donald Trump again hinted at military action following talks in Geneva.

"The basis of the nuclear industry is enrichment. Whatever you want to do in the nuclear process, you need nuclear fuel," said Eslami, according to a video published by Etemad daily.