Dubai

DUBAI, November 15. /TASS/: Russia’s latest S-550 missile defense system will feature an extended target detection and missile range, which will be able to intercept any targets, Rostec CEO Sergey Chemezov told reporters on the sidelines of the Dubai Airshow.

"This is work that never stops and will carry on being implemented to boost the detection range and the missile range with the capability of intercepting any target,’’ he said. ‘’That’s the focus of the work on the S-550.’’

DUBAI, November 14. /TASS/: The Checkmate one-engine fighter jet will received a modified AL-41F1 engine (Izdelie 117), Mikhail Nikitushkin, designer of Sukhoi Co (incorporated into the United Aircraft Corporation, or UAC, which is part of the Rostec state corporation), said on Sunday.

"The engine is the existing 117 modified for a one-engine plane in terms of reliability," he said.

DUBAI, November 14. /TASS/: The production of several prototypes of Checkmate fighter jets has been launched in Russia’s Far Eastern city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Yuri Slyusar, CEO of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC, incorporated in Rostec), said on Sunday.

"Works on the production of several prototype jets have kicked off in Komsomolsk simultaneously," he said.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Satellite tracking data and other signals on Wednesday suggested a Vietnamese oil tanker earlier seized by Iran had been freed by the Islamic Republic, ending the latest maritime confrontation involving Tehran amid stalled negotiations over its tattered nuclear deal with world powers.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s judicial authorities reportedly banned a newspaper Monday for publishing a front-page graphic that appeared to show Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s hand drawing the poverty line in the Islamic Republic, amid widespread anger over the cratering economy.

The semiofficial Mehr news agency said Iran’s media supervisory body shut down the daily newspaper Kelid after it published a front-page article titled “Millions of Iranians Living under Poverty Line” on Saturday.

DUBAI, Nov 7 (Reuters) - A security official from the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah group in Iraq dismissed suggestions on Sunday that Iraqi groups were behind the attack on Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi.

"According to our confirmed information, no-one in Iraq has the desire to waste a drone on the house of a former prime minister," Abu Ali Al-Askari said on Telegram.

Kataib Hezbollah and other Iran-aligned militias in Iraq are among the groups that are hostile to Kadhimi.

DUBAI, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Iran's military launched an annual exercise near the mouth of the Gulf on Sunday, Iranian state television reported, a few weeks before resumption of talks between Tehran and world powers to revive a 2015 nuclear deal.

"The military exercise in Iran's coast on the Gulf of Oman is to display the country's military might and readiness to confront our enemies," Admiral Mahmoud Mousavi, the spokesman for the Zolfaqar-1400 drill, told state television.

DUBAI, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Non-Muslims will be allowed to marry, divorce and get joint child custody under civil law in Abu Dhabi according to a new decree issued on Sunday by its ruler, state news agency WAM said.

It is the latest step in the United Arab Emirates -- where personal status laws on marriage and divorce had been based on Islamic sharia principles, as in other Gulf states -- to maintain its competitive edge as a regional commercial hub.

DUBAI, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Iran will not back down "in any way" in defending its interests, President Ebrahim Raisi said on Thursday, a day after all sides announced the resumption of nuclear talks between Tehran and major powers on Nov 29.

Washington said it hoped the talks would see Iran willing to negotiate in good faith on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal, while Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kani said the talks would cover the removal of "unlawful and inhumane sanctions".

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran seized a Vietnamese-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman last month and still holds the vessel, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday, revealing the latest provocation in Mideast waters as tensions escalate between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program.