UAE

UAE: Iran warns Israel of regional escalation if 'aggressions do not stop'

DUBAI, Oct 15 (Reuters) - Iran warned Israel of escalation if it failed to end aggressions against Palestinians, with its foreign minister saying other parties in the region were ready to act, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Sunday.

"If the Zionist aggressions do not stop, the hands of all parties in the region are on the trigger," Hossein Amirabdollahian was quoted as saying.

UAE: Iran accuses Israel of seeking 'genocide' with Gaza siege

DUBAI, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Iran's top envoy accused Israel of seeking "genocide" by enforcing a siege against the Gaza Strip, Iranian state TV reported on Thursday, as he began a regional tour to discuss the conflict between Tehran's Palestinian ally Hamas and Israel.

Israel said there would be no humanitarian break to its siege of the Gaza Strip, launched after Hamas militants' devastating attacks on Israel on Saturday, until all Israelis taken hostage that day were freed.

UAE: Iran's Khamenei says Tehran was not behind Hamas attack on Israel

DUBAI, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Tehran was not involved in the militant Hamas group's weekend attack on Israel, Iran's top authority Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday, but hailed what he called Israel's "irreparable" military and intelligence defeat.

"We kiss the hands of those who planned the attack on the Zionist regime," said Khamenei, who was wearing a Palestinian scarf, in his first televised speech since the attack.

UAE: Adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader expresses support for Palestinian attacks

DUBAI, Oct 7 (Reuters) - An adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday congratulated Palestinian fighters for launching the biggest attack on Israel in years, the semi-official ISNA news site reported.

"We congratulate the Palestinian fighters," it quoted Yahya Rahim Safavi as saying. "We will stand by the Palestinian fighters until the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem."

In a surprise assault, Palestinian group Hamas crossed into several Israeli towns on Saturday with a heavy barrage of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.

Iran's Khamenei says normalising Israel ties is a losing bet - state media

DUBAI, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that countries seeking to normalise relations with Israel "are betting on a losing horse", state media reported on Tuesday.

Khamenei did not identify the countries, but expectations that Israel might normalize ties with Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam's two holiest shrines, have been ratcheted up this month.

UAE’s president-designate for UN COP28 offers full-throated defense of nation hosting climate talks

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Emirati president-designate for the upcoming United Nations COP28 climate conference offered a full-throated defense Saturday of his nation hosting the talks, dismissing those who “just go on the attack without knowing anything, without knowing who we are.”

Climate activists roundly criticized Sultan al-Jaber’s appointment as the president-designate of the talks because he serves as the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., which is seeking to boost its production of carbon-emitting crude oil and natural gas.

Iran says it defused 30 bombs in Tehran, detained 28 people, Tasnim reports

DUBAI, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Authorities in Iran have neutralised 30 bombs meant to go off simultaneously in Tehran and detained 28 terrorists linked to Islamic State, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday, citing the intelligence ministry.

"Some of the members are of Islamic State (IS) and the perpetrators have a history of being affiliated with Takfiri groups in Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Kurdistan region of Iraq," Iran's intelligence ministry added in a statement.

Iran-US prisoner swap appears in motion as nearly $6B in once-frozen Iranian assets reaches Qatar

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran and the United States will exchange prisoners on Monday after nearly $6 billion in once-frozen Iranian assets reached Qatar, a key element of the planned swap, officials said.

Despite the deal, tensions are almost certain to remain high between the U.S. and Iran, which are locked in various disputes, including over Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran says the program is peaceful, but it now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.

U.S. records 470 mass shootings, 25,000 gun-related deaths in first 8 months of 2023

DUBAI, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- In the first eight months of 2023, 470 mass shootings occurred across the United States, and more than 25,000 Americans have died from gun violence, Gulf News, an English newspaper in the United Arab Emirates, said in a recent opinion piece.

According to the piece published on Thursday, an average of 22 children aged 17 and under are shot daily, and victims are predominantly fatalities from shootings but also include deaths by suicide.

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