UAE

DUBAI, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Iran is dropping plans for prisoner swaps with the United States due to "breaches" by Washington in efforts to free the detainees, an unnamed Iranian official told the semi-official Nour News agency on Tuesday.

Tehran and President Joe Biden's administration have been communicating on prisoner exchanges aimed at securing the release of Iranians held in U.S. jails and other countries over violations of U.S. sanctions, and of Americans jailed in Iran.

DUBAI, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Iran's hardline incoming president Ebrahim Raisi said on Tuesday he would take steps to lift "tyrannical" sanctions imposed by the United States, after winning the formal endorsement of the country's supreme leader to take office later this week.

Raisi, who is under personal U.S. sanctions over allegations of human rights abuses in his past as a judge, promised to improve the living conditions of Iranians, which have worsened since 2018 when Washington reimposed sanctions on Iran after abandoning a nuclear deal.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Once a protégé of Iran’s supreme leader is sworn in as president this week, hard-liners will control all parts of the Islamic Republic’s civilian government.

Given the brinkmanship over its accelerating nuclear program and the West alleging that Tehran launched a fatal drone attack targeting an oil tanker linked to an Israeli billionaire last week, one might think that had already happened.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel’s prime minister Sunday directly blamed Iran for a drone attack on an oil tanker off the coast of Oman that killed two people, making a veiled threat to retaliate as Tehran denied being involved in the assault.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. Navy explosive experts believe a “drone strike” targeted an oil tanker that came under attack off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea, killing two on board, the American military said Saturday.

The strike Thursday night on the oil tanker Mercer Street marks the first-known fatal attack after years of assaults on commercial shipping in the region linked to tensions with Iran over its tattered nuclear deal. While no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, Israeli officials alleged Tehran launched the drone strike.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An oil tanker linked to an Israeli billionaire reportedly came under attack off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea, authorities said Friday, as details about the incident remained few.

The attack Thursday night targeted Liberian-flagged oil tanker Mercer Street just northeast of the Omani island of Masirah. The location is over 300 kilometers (185 miles) southeast of Oman’s capital, Muscat.

DUBAI, July 29 (Reuters) - Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on Thursday named ambassadors to Egypt and Libya, his office said, as the Gulf Arab state moves to improve ties with some regional states.

Salem bin Mubarak Al-Shafi was named envoy to Egypt, while Khalid Mohammed Al-Dosari was appointed for Libya.

Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain agreed in January to end a dispute that saw them boycott Qatar since 2017 over charges it supports terrorism, a reference to Islamist groups, which Doha denies.

DUBAI, July 28 (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader on Wednesday declared Tehran would not accept Washington's "stubborn" demands in talks to revive a 2015 nuclear deal and said the United States had failed to guarantee that it would never abandon the pact again.

"The Americans acted completely cowardly and maliciously," state TV quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying.

"They once violated the nuclear deal at no cost by exiting it. Now they explicitly say that they cannot give guarantees that it would not happen again."

27 July 2021; MEMO: A decision by Israel's Environmental Protection Minister, Tamar Zandberg, to freeze a major oil deal with the UAE to Israel might lead to ties between the two countries being severed, UAE officials have warned.

DUBAI, July 23 (Reuters) - Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday that Iranians protesting over water shortages in the southwest cannot be blamed, and called on officials to deal with the water problem, Iran's state media reported.

"The people showed their displeasure ... but we cannot really blame the people and their issues must be taken care of," Khamenei was quoted by Iranian news agencies as saying, in reference to the week-long protests.