King Charles III will welcome Sultan Haitham bin Tarik of Oman to Windsor Castle on Tuesday at the start of a three-day state visit as Britain seeks to bolster a strategically important ally squeezed by both sides in the U.S. war against Iran.

The sultan will be greeted with a royal gun salute, a carriage ride through the town of Windsor and a military honor guard before a glittering state banquet Tuesday night at the palace. On Wednesday, the sultan will hold talks with Prime Minister Andy Burnham and give a speech to business leaders in London before his departure the following day.

Pakistan's powerful army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, whose country has attempted to mediate a peace deal in the Middle East war, was expected in Tehran on Tuesday, according to Iranian state media.

The official news agency IRNA did not specify the purpose of the visit, which comes with diplomatic efforts between Iran and the United States stalled over issues including the future of the Strait of Hormuz.

Saudi forces on Tuesday intercepted a ballistic missile aimed at the kingdom's capital, said a spokesman for the Riyadh-led coalition backing Yemen's government, after authorities issued a danger warning and AFP journalists reported hearing blasts.

The kingdom "intercepted and destroyed a ballistic missile launched by the terrorist Houthi militia towards Riyadh", Turki Al-Malki said in a post on X.

Extreme speech has surged under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's far-right government and can be heard at the highest levels ahead of Israel's Oct. 27 elections.

With just days before the vote, Israeli think tank OFEK shared a spreadsheet with The Associated Press listing 227 extreme comments made this year by officials, as part of an ongoing project tracking incitement. While Netanyahu has not used the rhetoric of his far-right allies, he campaigns with the slogan "right or Palestine," which some critics have called incitement.

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels struck a military camp for government forces in southern Yemen on Monday, killing at least 20 soldiers, Yemeni military officials said, in one of the deadliest attacks in the recent surge in fighting.

The rebels fired ballistic missiles on the al-Alam military camp in the southern province of Shabwa in an attack that also wounded at least two dozen troops. The military officials with the internationally recognized government of Yemen spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday began a Gulf tour aimed at securing oil and diesel supplies in an effort to bring down prices, after a weekend of violent protests sparked by soaring living costs.

Macron, just hours after slamming France's "unbridled" violence in an address late on Sunday, arrived in OPEC member Kuwait where he was welcomed by the emir, Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

Russia's foreign minister has arrived in Tehran for his first visit since the outbreak of the Middle East war, Russian news agencies reported on Monday, as Moscow seeks to play a mediating role.

Arriving from Bahrain, Sergei Lavrov was scheduled to meet with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

U.S. embassies across much of the Middle East urged Americans to increase their vigilance on Monday, citing a "complex security environment" and travel disruptions eight months into the U.S.-Iran war.

Embassies in the Gulf, Israel, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan issued a security alert saying: "Americans currently in the Middle East should exercise heightened vigilance due to the complex security environment.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday that Israel will not hesitate to strike its enemies at a moment's notice, eight days before a tight election and following his warnings to Iran.

Netanyahu said he spoke to the commander of an unspecified base and saw Israel's "capability to strike our enemies the moment it is required."

Israeli police said they arrested 10 people on Monday in connection with a wave of settler violence that included attacks on a foreign journalist and European diplomats in the occupied West Bank over the weekend.

Israel had come under heavy international criticism for the attacks. Israeli police did not identify the suspects or specify their roles in the attacks, which came during a spike in settler violence during the annual Palestinian olive harvest season.