World oil prices dived Wednesday and stock markets rallied on fresh hopes for an end to the Iran war.

U.S. President Donald Trump issued an ultimatum Wednesday for Iran to accept a deal to end the war or face renewed, more intense U.S. bombing, in the latest of a series of abrupt policy shifts.

"Assuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to, which is perhaps a big assumption, the already legendary Epic Fury will be at an end," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform," using the U.S. name for its campaign against Iran.

The United States and a key mediator in the Middle East war expressed new hope of talks leading to a peace deal with Iran on Wednesday, after President Donald Trump halted a plan to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing would play a "greater role" in ending hostilities in the Middle East during talks with his Iranian counterpart on Wednesday, a week before U.S. President Donald Trump is due to meet Xi Jinping.

A container ship owned by French shipping company CMA CGM was the "target of an attack" in the Strait of Hormuz, the major shipping firm said on Wednesday.

"The CMA CGM San Antonio was the target of an attack yesterday while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, resulting in injuries among crew members and damage to the vessel," the shipping firm told AFP, adding those injured had been evacuated for treatment.

Syrian authorities announced on Tuesday they had arrested a Hezbollah-affiliated cell plotting to assassinate government officials, while the Lebanese group denied the "false accusations".

The Syrian interior ministry said that it had conducted a "series of simultaneous security operations" in the Damascus countryside, Aleppo, Homs, Tartus and Latakia provinces.

Israel's military on Wednesday issued a new evacuation warning for a dozen villages in southern and eastern Lebanon ahead of expected strikes, despite a truce with Lebanon intended to halt the fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah.

"For your safety, you must evacuate your homes immediately and move away from the villages and towns by at least 1,000 meters into open areas," the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X, listing 12 villages.

Israel's new air force chief Major General Omer Tischler said on Tuesday that Israel was prepared to deploy its entire fleet of fighter jets against Iran if necessary.

He spoke weeks into a fragile ceasefire in the Middle East war, which erupted when Israel and the United States launched strikes against Iran in February.

Germany's foreign minister Tuesday offered qualified support for Israel's military invasion of Lebanon during a visit of his Israeli counterpart to Berlin, while also criticizing humanitarian conditions in Gaza and "de facto annexation" in the West Bank.

FIFA has invited the Iranian football federation (FFIRI) to its headquarters for talks over the country's participation at this year's World Cup, a source told AFP on Tuesday.