Dubai

DUBAI (Reuters) - A border crossing between Iran and Iraq, which is due to be used by hundreds of thousands of Shi’ite Muslim worshippers at an annual pilgrimage this month, has been closed because of unrest in Iraq, Iranian state television reported on Thursday.

A senior Iranian pilgrimage official told state television that the Khosravi border crossing was closed, but other crossings were open ahead of the pilgrimage in the southern Iraqi city of Kerbala.

The state news agency IRNA said the Chazabeh crossing, which had been closed late on Wednesday, had reopened.

DUBAI/STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A British-flagged tanker that was detained by Iran for 10 weeks was approaching docks in Dubai on Saturday, after a standoff that has stoked tensions along a vital global shipping route for oil.

The Stena Impero sailed out of Iranian waters on Friday, having been seized by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on July 19 shortly after British forces detained an Iranian tanker off the territory of Gibraltar. The Iranian ship was released in August.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia has announced a new tourist visa scheme, as part of efforts to open up the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom to foreign visitors and diversify its oil-reliant economy.

The kingdom says allowing more foreign visitors is “a key milestone.” It is seeking to increase international and domestic visits to 100 million a year by 2030, by which time it aims to have tourism contributing up to 10% of gross domestic product compared to the current 3%.

DUBAI (Reuters) - The British-flagged Stena Impero tanker sailed out of Iranian waters on Friday, the owner said, after it was detained in July during a row with Britain that has stoked tensions in the Gulf.

The Stena Impero left Iran’s Bandar Abbas port on Friday morning bound for Dubai, where the crew would be repatriated, Sweden’s Stena Bulk said, after being detained for 10 weeks.

26 September 2019; AFP: An Emirati has made history as the first Arab to reach the International Space Station, after blasting off from Kazakhstan.

The Russian spacecraft carrying Hazzaa al-Mansoori of the United Arab Emirates, who was accompanied by Russia's Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, docked Wednesday after a six-hour trip.

The three "entered the orbiting lab and joined six of their station crewmates for a joyful crew greeting ceremony today," NASA tweeted.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday new U.S. sanctions, under which Iran’s central bank was blacklisted for a second time, pointed to U.S. “desperation” in face of Iranian resistance.

The United States on Friday imposed another round of sanctions on Iran, including on its central bank which was already blacklisted, following the Sept. 14 attacks on Saudi oil facilities that Riyadh and U.S. officials have blamed on Iran.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran will pursue any aggressor, even it carries out a limited attack, and seek to destroy it, the head of the elite Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday, after attacks on Saudi oil sites which Riyadh and U.S officials blamed on Tehran.

“Be careful, a limited aggression will not remain limited.

We will pursue any aggressor,” the head of the Guards, Major General Hossein Salami, said in remarks broadcast on state TV.

“We are after punishment and we will continue until the full destruction of any aggressor.”

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Any attack on Iran by the U.S. or Saudi Arabia will spark an “all-out war,” Tehran’s top diplomat warned Thursday, raising the stakes as Washington and Riyadh weigh a response to a drone-and-missile strike on the kingdom’s oil industry that shook global energy markets.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Latest on tensions in the Persian Gulf (all times local):

10:00 p.m.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says U.N. experts have already left for Saudi Arabia to investigate attacks on key Saudi oil installations.

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday it would “invite U.N. and international experts to view the situation on the ground and to participate in the investigations.”

DUBAI (Reuters) - The U.S. Secretary of State will meet with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in Jeddah on Wednesday to discuss the attack on Aramco installations and coordinate efforts against “Iranian aggression”, the U.S. Mission to the United Arab Emirates said.

Mike Pompeo “will meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss the recent attack on the Kingdom’s oil facilities and coordinate efforts to counter Iranian aggression in the region,” a Twitter posting said.