Pakistan on Thursday confirmed it was holding peace talks with Afghanistan's Taliban government in China, where Beijing is mediating to broker a lasting ceasefire after weeks of fighting that have killed hundreds, disrupting trade and cross-border travel.

The confirmation of the new round of talks came a day after officials from the two sides told The Associated Press that representatives from the two countries had traveled to Urumqi in northern China, where they held the first round of talks.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran will not provide a durable solution to the issue of Tehran's nuclear program and that Trump cannot keep "contradicting" himself every day on Iran.

"A targeted military action, even for a few weeks, will not allow us to resolve the nuclear issue in the long term," Macron said in South Korea.

Almost three dozen countries will meet Thursday in an effort to exert diplomatic and political pressure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route that has been choked off by the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the virtual meeting chaired by Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper "will assess all viable diplomatic and political measures we can take to restore freedom of navigation, guarantee the safety of trapped ships and seafarers and to resume the movement of vital commodities."

An undersea magnitude 7.4 earthquake toppled buildings in parts of northern Indonesia, sent people fleeing from their homes, killed at least one person and generated a small tsunami Thursday.

Strong shaking lasting 10 to 20 seconds was felt in Bitung in North Sulawesi province as well as in Ternate city in neighboring North Maluku province, according to the Disaster Management Agency. The provinces border the Molucca Sea, where the quake was centered.

The U.S. and Iran are discussing a potential deal that would involve a ceasefire in exchange for Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz, three U.S. officials told U.S. news portal Axios on Wednesday.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards insisted on Wednesday that the strategic strait of Hormuz will remain closed to the country's "enemies" as U.S. President Donald Trump said he would only consider a ceasefire if it was reopened.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Iran has asked for a ceasefire but that the United States would only consider this once the Strait of Hormuz is clear for shipping.

Iran's president "has just asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. "We will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!"

President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday France had not been consulted and wasn't taking part in the war against Iran, after U.S. leader Donald Trump criticized the country's overflight ban on planes carrying military supplies for the conflict.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called NATO "the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen" Wednesday following renewed criticism of the group by U.S. President Donald Trump.

"It has kept us safe for many decades, and we are fully committed to NATO," Starmer told a press conference, after Trump told the UK's Telegraph newspaper that the alliance was a "paper tiger".

U.S. President Donald Trump told The New York Post on Tuesday that he believes the Iran war is likely to end soon and that other nations can reopen the Strait of Hormuz themselves — after he posted to social media a video of huge explosions near Isfahan that he said hit “a lot of stuff.”