Dubai

DUBAI, Aug 2 (NNN-WAM) – The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced on Saturday, the start-up operations of its first nuclear power plant in the capital, Abu Dhabi.

The milestone achievement was announced through a tweet by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE’s prime minister.

“We announce the UAE’s success in operating the first peaceful nuclear energy reactor in the Arab world … the work teams succeeded in loading nuclear fuel packages, carrying out comprehensive tests and successfully completing the operation,” tweeted Sheikh Mohammed yesterday.

DUBAI (Reuters) - The foreign minister of United Arab Emirates told his Iranian counterpart that strengthening bilateral cooperation was an important element in tackling the coronavirus, UAE state news agency WAM said on Sunday.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan made the comment to Mohammad Javad Zarif in a video call during which they also exchanged greetings for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, it said.

Shi’ite Muslim Iran has long been at odds with U.S. Gulf Sunni Arab allies the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ruled out negotiations with the United States over Tehran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programmes on Friday and urged Iranians to resist U.S. pressure.

“America’s brutal sanctions on Iran are aimed at collapsing our economy ... Their aim is to limit our influence in the region and to halt our missile and nuclear capabilities,” Khamenei said in a speech broadcast live on television.

“Relying on national capabilities and cutting our dependence on oil exports will help us to resist America’s pressure.”

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched missiles Tuesday targeting a mock aircraft carrier in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a drill that included such a barrage of fire the U.S. military temporarily put two regional bases in the Mideast on alert amid tensions between the two countries.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has been admitted to a hospital in the capital, Riyadh, for medical tests due to inflammation of the gallbladder, the kingdom’s Royal Court said Monday in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The statement said the 84-year-old monarch is being tested at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital. The brief statement did not provide further details.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A United Nations agency acknowledged Sunday that a U.S.-sought oil tanker “hijacked” off the coast of the United Arab Emirates after allegedly smuggling Iranian crude oil is back in Iranian waters.

The International Labor Organization said that the MT Gulf Sky was hijacked July 5, citing its captain. That mirrors earlier reporting by The Associated Press.

“The vessel was taken to Iran,” the ILO said.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An oil tanker sought by the U.S. over allegedly circumventing sanctions on Iran was hijacked on July 5 off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, a seafarers welfare organization said Wednesday.

Satellite photos showed the vessel in Iranian waters on Tuesday and two of its sailors remained in the Iranian capital.

It wasn’t immediately clear what happened aboard the Dominica-flagged MT Gulf Sky, though its reported hijacking comes after months of tensions between Iran and the U.S.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Air strikes on Yemen’s northern province of al-Jawf killed at least seven civilians on Wednesday, residents and an official from the Houthi movement said - the third such incident since June as violence resurges in the war-ravaged country.

The Houthi health ministry spokesman said air raids by a Saudi-led coalition hit residential houses in the al-Hazm district, killing nine people including two children and two women. Two residents told Reuters seven people had been killed.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Bahrain’s highest court upheld death sentences against two activists for bombing a convoy and killing a police officer, after convictions that human rights groups say were based on confessions extracted through torture.

Mohammed Ramadhan and Husain Moosa lost their final appeal on Monday against death sentences that were initially handed down by a criminal court in December 2014.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Yemen’s Houthi movement has agreed to provide the United Nations access to a stranded oil tanker that risks causing an environmental disaster off the coast of the war-divided country, two U.N. sources familiar with the matter said.

The U.N. earlier this week said it was extremely concerned after water entered the engine room of Safer tanker, which carries 1.1 million barrels of crude oil and has been stranded off the Red Sea oil terminal of Ras Issa for over five years.