Moscow has weighed in on the war between the US, Israel and Iran, warning that it could spur a nuclear weapon race in the Middle East.

The war may prompt not only Iran but also its Arab neighbours to seek to acquire nuclear weapons if it feels increasingly under threat by neighbouring countries, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said.

The widening war in the Middle East increased the risk that nuclear proliferation issues could spin out of control, Lavrov said.

UN nuclear watchdog IAEA said on Tuesday there was some recent damage to entrance buildings at Iran’s underground Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP),

The agency added that it expected no radiological consequence or additional impact detected at FEP itself.

The death toll of US and Israeli strikes on Iran has hit 787 people, the UN human rights office has said, citing Iran’s Red Crescent.

The growing toll comes as Israel intensifies its attacks on Lebanon, with buildings flattened in a southern suburb of the capital of Beirut.

The US-based Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRANA), meanwhile, reports that 742 civilians have been killed, including 176 children.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Tuesday it was closely monitoring developments in the Middle East, noting disruptions to trade and economic activity, surging energy prices and increased financial market volatility.

The IMF said it was too early to assess the economic impact on the region or globally, which will depend on the extent and duration of the conflict.

France is ready to defend its partners if requested amid Iranian retaliatory strikes, foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Tuesday.

“This war… is dragging a number of countries in the region into the conflict with which we have relations, defence agreements, and interests, including military bases,” Barrot told French broadcaster BFM TV.

He added that French Rafale fighter jets carried out air operations to secure the skies above France’s bases in the region.

Around 400,000 French nationals are currently in the countries affected by the crisis in the Middle East and the French government is ready to fly back those most at risk using both commercial and military flights, Barrot said.

Donald Trump touted the U.S. military’s munitions stockpiles as the administration promised that the “hardest hits yet to come” in the ongoing conflict in Iran.

“The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better – As was stated to me today, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons,” the president wrote in the early hours of Tuesday.

Trump stated his belief that the U.S. will “easily prevail,” adding that the military is ready for the operation to go on for “whatever it takes.”

“Wars can be fough ‘forever,’ and very successully, using just these supplies,” he added in the TruthSocial post.

The Independent’s foreign reporters Maira Butt and James Reynolds report:

The Israeli military has launched fresh strikes on Tehran and Beirut, causing vast damage to buildings in the Lebanese capital.

Images show the smouldering remains of a building that had been flattened to a pile of rubble in a southern suburb of Beirut, by an Israeli airstrike.

No reports of further casualties have yet emerged.

The US has also warned that the “hardest hits are yet to come”, but its strikes have so far only targeted Iran, as far we we know.

China has urged the US to halt its military actions in favour of talks and negotiations, adding that it respects Iran’s “legitimate right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy”, a foreign ministry spokesperson said.

US strikes on Iran “during ongoing negotiations… violate international law and basic principles of international relations,” ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said during a regular press briefing.

“The Iran nuclear issue should eventually return to the track of political and diplomatic settlement,” she added.