UAE

New Delhi, Mar 27 (PTI) In reflection of its gradual expansion of defence ties with the United Arab Emirates, India participated in a multilateral air exercise in the Gulf nation alongside several other key players, including the US and France, officials said on Saturday.

The sixth edition of the exercise 'Desert Flag-VI' was conducted from March 4 to 27 at Al Dhafra air base in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), they said.

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Chinese and Iranian foreign ministers on Saturday signed a 25-year cooperation agreement between the two allies in a ceremony carried live on state television.

“Our relations with Iran will not be affected by the current situation, but will be permanent and strategic,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was earlier quoted by Iranian news agencies as saying.

“Iran decides independently on its relations with other countries and is not like some countries that change their position with one phone call.”

DUBAI (Reuters) - Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Friday they had attacked Saudi energy and military sites with 18 armed drones, and the kingdom’s energy ministry reported that a projectile had struck a petroleum products distribution station, causing a fire.

The Saudi-led military coalition which is at war with the Houthis said late on Thursday it had intercepted several drones aimed at Saudi Arabia. The attacks came days after Riyadh presented a peace initiative that includes a nationwide truce in Yemen as the war enters its seventh year.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A fuel tank at an oil facility in Saudi Arabia caught fire after being struck by a projectile, the kingdom said Friday, an attack that came on the sixth anniversary of its entry into Yemen’s yearslong civil war.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the assault at Jizan in southwest Saudi Arabia near the border with Yemen, though it came during what Saudi defense officials described as a barrage of eight bomb-carrying drones launched by the Houthi rebels.

24 Mar 2021; MEMO: Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Dubai's deputy ruler and for decades one of the most influential figures in international horseracing, has died, Reuters reported Dubai's ruler saying today.

Sheikh Hamdan, 75, was the brother of Dubai's current ruler, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum. He had been unwell for months and had surgery abroad in October.

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Saudi-led coalition has allowed four fuel ships to dock at Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hodeidah, two sources familiar with the matter said, after the Houthi group said it would only agree to a ceasefire proposal if an air and sea blockade were lifted.

Four vessels, including two carrying a total of 45,000 tonnes of gas oil, a ship loaded with 5,000 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas and a fourth tanker with 22,700 tonnes of fuel oil have received clearance from the coalition, the sources said.

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Chinese government plans to invite Israelis and Palestinians to hold talks in China, Al-Arabiya TV channel quoted Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday as saying in an interview.

Wang, who started a Middle East tour this week, also voiced support for a Saudi initiative announced on Monday to end the war in Yemen, according to the Saudi-owned, Dubai-based channel.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A massive cargo ship turned sideways in Egypt’s Suez Canal, blocking traffic in a crucial East-West waterway for global shipping, according to satellite data accessed Wednesday.

Traffic on the narrow waterway dividing continental Africa from the Sinai Peninsula stopped Tuesday after the MV Ever Given, a Panama-flagged container ship with an owner listed in Japan, got stuck.

22 Mar 2021; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) allegedly brokered a ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan last month, according to Emirati officials.

"Yet behind closed doors, the India-Pakistan ceasefire marked a milestone in secret talks brokered by the UAE that began months earlier," Bloomberg quoted the officials, who asked to remain unnamed.

DUBAI (Reuters) - An explosion killed one person and injured three others on Sunday in a southeastern Iranian town that was the centre of bloody unrest last month, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported.

A Revolutionary Guards statement quoted by the agency blamed what it called terrorist groups for the blast in a square in Saravan, near the border with Pakistan.