Dubai

DUBAI, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Iran's Defence Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani warned that a proposed U.S.-backed multinational task force to protect shipping in the Red Sea would face "extraordinary problems", official Iranian media reported on Thursday.

Ashtiani's comments came after the United States said last week it was in talks with other countries to set up a task force following a spate of attacks by the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen on ships in the Red Sea.

DUBAI, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Iran said it was lifting visa requirements for 33 countries, including Gulf states like Saudi Arabia with which Tehran had frosty relations for years until a recent rapprochement, the Iranian Students News Agency said on Thursday.

"The ministry of tourism believes that an open-door policy will showcase Iran's determination to engage with different countries of the world," the semi-official ISNA reported.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — United Nations climate negotiators directed the world on Wednesday to transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels in a move the talks chief called historic, despite critics worries about loopholes.

Within minutes of opening Wednesday’ session, COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber gaveled approval of the central document – the global stocktake that says how far the world is off-track it climate-fighting goals and how it is going to get back – without asking for comments. Delegates stood and hugged each other.

DUBAI, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- The ongoing UN climate talks in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, were extended Tuesday beyond the scheduled host-set deadline of 11:00 a.m. local time (0700 GMT) as parties to the COP28 climate conference failed to reach a consensus on the draft text of a hoped-for final agreement.

"We would all like to finish on time, but we want the most ambitious outcome," said COP28 Director-General Majid Al Suwaidi while briefing media on the latest developments.

Al Suwaidi said, "We are facing the most demanding COP agenda of all time."

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — In the bustling halls where global climate talks are being held, onetime farmer Joseph Kenson Sakala of Malawi is sharing the story of how fossil fuel development upended his life — and hoping that negotiators listen to many such stories and then move decisively to cut use of the coal, oil and gas warming the planet.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels slammed into a Norwegian-flagged tanker in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen near a key maritime chokepoint, the rebels and authorities said Tuesday.

DUBAI, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The European Union's climate chief on Saturday heavily criticised an attempt by OPEC to derail a COP28 deal on phasing out fossil fuels, calling the move by the oil producers' club "unhelpful" and "out of whack".

Nearly 200 countries meeting in Dubai for the U.N.'s COP28 climate summit are debating whether to agree, for the first time, to eventually end the world's use of fossil fuels, the main cause of climate change.

DUBAI, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Countries clashed on Saturday over a proposed agreement to phase-out fossil fuels at the COP28 summit in Dubai, jeopardising attempts to deliver a first-ever commitment to eventually end the use of oil and gas in 30 years of global warming talks.

Observers in the negotiations said Saudi Arabia and Russia were among several countries insisting that the conference in Dubai focus only on reducing climate pollution - and not on targeting the fossil fuels causing it.

DUBAI, Dec 8 (Reuters) - COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber urged countries on Friday to get out of their comfort zones and work together to reach agreement before the two-week summit ends.

"Let's please get this job done," he said, opening a plenary session as the summit entered its toughest phase of negotiations. "I need you to step up and I need you to come out of your comfort zones," he said.

With five days left before the conference's scheduled end on Dec. 12, country ministers are joining the deliberations on Friday.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Nations climate conference on Friday began its final week with negotiators expected to zoom in on the future of fossil fuels on a dangerously warming planet.

Reopening COP28 after a rest day, President Sultan al-Jaber described what he saw as an “unprecedented level of momentum” for the summit.

The climate summit is “sending a clear signal that all of us — small and large – can make a difference,” al-Jaber said. “Let us build on that success for an unprecedented outcome.”