Iran acting FM meets Hassan Nasrallah and Syria's Assad on first trip abroad

Iran's acting foreign minister Ali Bagheri discussed "proposed solutions" for ending the Gaza war with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday, the Iran-backed Lebanese group said.

The two men "reviewed the latest regional political and security developments, especially on the Gaza and Lebanon fronts, and the proposed solutions," a Hezbollah statement said.

Bagheri later Tuesday visited ally Damascus, where he met with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, discussing "bilateral relations... and developments in the occupied Palestinian territories", the Syrian presidency said in a statement.

US President Joe Biden outlined a three-stage roadmap towards a full ceasefire on Friday that he said was a new offer from Israel that he urged Hamas to accept.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Biden's presentation of what was on the table, stressing that the war would continue until all of Israel's "goals are achieved".

Netanyahu said that included the destruction of Hamas's capacity to govern Gaza or pose a military threat to Israel.

Bagheri arrived in Lebanon Monday on his first foreign trip since being named caretaker minister following the death of his predecessor Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a helicopter crash last month that also killed president Ebrahim Raisi.

At a press conference on Monday, Bagheri said the United States should halt all aid to Israel rather than propose a ceasefire.

He said he had chosen Lebanon for his first official visit "because Lebanon is the cradle of resistance" against Israel.

Iran's Tasnim news agency said Bagheri "talked with the leaders of the Palestinian resistance groups in Syria" at the Iranian embassy in Damascus.