Here are the latest developments related to the war in the Middle East on Thursday, the 34th day of the conflict:

Strikes have severely damaged the Pasteur Institute in Tehran.

Strikes hit the Pasteur Institute of Iran in Tehran, causing significant damage to this key health facility in the capital, the Health Ministry announced Thursday.

"The attack on the Pasteur Institute of Iran, a century-old pillar of global health and a member of the International Pasteur Network, constitutes a direct attack on international health security," said ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour.

He published images of the site showing the heavily damaged building, with some parts reduced to ruins.

Beijing is demanding an "immediate" end to hostilities following Trump's remarks.

Beijing reiterated on Thursday its call for an immediate cessation of hostilities in the Middle East and asserted that there was no military solution to the conflict, after comments by US President Donald Trump promising to continue to hit Iran hard for several more days.

"We once again urge the parties concerned to immediately cease military operations and to begin a peace talks process as soon as possible," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning.

She also judged that "the primary cause of the disruptions to navigation in the Strait of Hormuz lay in the illegal military operations carried out by the United States and Israel against Iran".

In Baghdad, the American embassy warns of attacks.

The US embassy in Baghdad warned on Thursday that pro-Iranian Iraqi armed groups could launch attacks against the city over the next two days.

"Iranian-backed Iraqi terrorist militias could launch attacks in central Baghdad within the next 24 to 48 hours," she said, again calling on Americans in Iraq to leave the country immediately.

The Israeli army reports a fourth Iranian attack in six hours.

The Israeli army reported Thursday that it was countering another barrage of missile fire "launched from Iran," according to a Telegram message, the fourth such attack in six hours. Two of these attacks occurred after Mr. Trump's speech on the war in the Middle East.

Lebanese Hezbollah, for its part, claimed to have targeted Israeli positions in border areas with rockets and to have attacked an Israeli village with drones.

Air raid sirens sounded across northern Israel, according to the army's Home Front Command, and no casualties or damage have been reported so far.

Oil prices rise and stock markets fall after Trump's speech

The price of a barrel of Brent crude oil from the North Sea, the international benchmark, has risen back above $105, after having been trending downwards before Donald Trump's speech.

In the wake of this more aggressive-than-expected speech, which dampened market hopes for a swift end to the war in the Middle East, European stock markets opened in the red on Thursday: in early trading, around 07:05 GMT, Paris was down 1.30%, Frankfurt 1.57%, and Milan 1.47%. London was down 0.68%.

Asian stock markets, which had opened in the green, also reversed course.

Trump says Iran will be hit "extremely hard" for two to three weeks.

In an unprecedented address since the start of the war, the US president promised on Wednesday to strike Iran "extremely hard" for another two to three weeks, threatening in particular its energy infrastructure, and said he was "close to fulfilling" US strategic objectives in that country.

Donald Trump also reiterated his calls for countries dependent on the Strait of Hormuz for their oil shipments to "take care of it": "Go to the strait, take it, protect it, use it," said the man who criticizes many NATO allies for not coming to the aid of the United States.

The United Arab Emirates targeted by missile and drone attacks

"The air defenses of the United Arab Emirates (...) are actively intervening against missile and drone threats," the UAE Ministry of Defense said early Thursday on the X platform, without specifying where these devices came from.

A Bangladeshi man was killed the previous day by debris from intercepted drones near the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran considers the United States' demands to be "maximalist and irrational".

Iran on Thursday denounced the "maximalist and irrational" demands of the United States to end the war in the Middle East, while denying that negotiations on a ceasefire were taking place between the two enemy countries, according to Iranian media.

"Messages have been received through intermediaries, including Pakistan, but there are no direct negotiations with the United States," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei was quoted as saying by the Iranian news agency Isna.