UAE agrees to withdraw from Yemen; Trump-Netanyahu meet on Gaza

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The United Arab Emirates’ Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed received a phone call from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, where they discussed regional developments, topped by the situations in Yemen and Gaza, state news agency WAM reported on Tuesday.

The call came after Saudi-led coalition forces attacked the southern Yemeni port of Mukalla.

The US military said Tuesday that nearly 25 operatives of the Islamic State group were killed or captured in Syria this month following an ambush that killed two US troops and an American civilian interpreter.

US Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, said in a statement on X that 11 missions were carried out over the past 10 days and followed initial strikes against IS weapons sites and infrastructure on 19 December, which hit 70 targets across central Syria.

In the operations since, the US military and other forces from the region, including Syria, killed at least seven IS members, captured others and eliminated four weapons caches, US Central Command said.

Targets ranged from senior IS members who were being closely monitored by military officials to lower-level foot soldiers, according to a US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.

Turkey and Spain have signed a 2.6 billion euro ($3.06 billion) deal for the Spanish air force to procure 30 light training jets from Turkish Aerospace Industries from 2028, Turkey's defence industry authority said on Tuesday.

The Turkish company and Airbus inked a cooperation accord in July as part of the negotiations for the procurement. The final deal marks the first foreign sale of its Hurjet training jet.

Turkish Aerospace Industries will export Hurjet aircraft from 2028 until 2036, the authority said in a statement, adding the accord would also pave the way for deeper defence industry cooperation between NATO allies Turkey and Spain.

"This agreement is a high-value-added and multi-dimensional defence industry export package," Haluk Gorgun, the authority's chairman, said.

Yemen's Saudi-led coalition said a shipment arriving from the United Arab Emirates to Yemen's southern port of Mukalla had containers loaded with weapons and ammunition.

The statement came in response to a statement by the UAE saying that the shipment in question did not contain weapons and were destined for the Emirati forces.

The coalition said it had information that such weapons would be transported and distributed to locations in Yemen's Hadramout. 

The United States announced sanctions Tuesday targeting Iran's drones trade with Venezuela, a move that comes while Washington ramps up a pressure campaign against Venezuela's leftist President Nicolas Maduro.

The US Treasury Department took aim at 10 individuals and entities based in Venezuela and Iran, over issues including purchases of Iranian-designed drones, efforts to procure chemicals used for ballistic missiles and other concerns.

"Treasury is holding Iran and Venezuela accountable for their aggressive and reckless proliferation of deadly weapons around the world," said Treasury Under Secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, John Hurley.

"We will continue to take swift action to deprive those who enable Iran's military-industrial complex access to the US financial system," he added in a statement.

Qatar praised on Tuesday statements by Saudi Arabia and the UAE on the latest developments in Yemen, saying it reflected the "commitment to prioritising interests in region."

In its statement, the Qatari foreign ministry stressed the importance of preserving Yemen’s unity and territorial integrity.

The foreign ministers of 10 nations on Tuesday expressed "serious concerns" about a "renewed deterioration of the humanitarian situation" in Gaza, saying the situation was "catastrophic".

"As winter draws in, civilians in Gaza are facing appalling conditions with heavy rainfall and temperatures dropping," the ministers of Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland said in a joint statement released by the UK's Foreign Office.

"1.3 million people still require urgent shelter support. More than half of health facilities are only partially functional and face shortages of essential medical equipment and supplies. The total collapse of sanitation infrastructure has left 740,000 people vulnerable to toxic flooding," the statement added.

The Israeli military said its troops shot dead a man who it said tried to run over a group of soldiers in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday.

The incident occurred in Einabus in the northern West Bank, the military said.

"A short while ago, a report was received regarding a terrorist who attempted to run over IDF (Israeli army) soldiers operating in the area of Einabus," the military said.

"In response, the soldiers fired at the terrorist and eliminated him."

The military did not provide other details of the incident, which came just days after a Palestinian ran over an Israeli in his sixties with his vehicle and later stabbed an 18-year-old girl to death in northern Israel.

Dutch police have arrested a 29-year-old Syrian man they suspect of being a member of Islamic State and planning an attack somewhere in Europe, prosecutors said on Tuesday, based on the man's social media posts.

The prosecutors said the intelligence agency AIVD had found social media posts in which the man threatened to commit an attack at an unspecified place in Europe around Christmas.

They did not elaborate on the suspected planned attack or on their suspicions that the man was a member of Islamic State.

The man was arrested on 18 December in his house in Vlissingen in the southwest of the Netherlands, and a court on Tuesday ruled that his detention would be extended by at least 30 days as an investigation continued.

Authorities in Syria's Latakia province arrested 21 people allegedly linked to ousted leader Bashar al-Assad's rule on Tuesday, state media reported, as a curfew blanketed the provincial capital after sectarian violence the previous night.

Monday's attacks in predominantly Alawite neighbourhoods of Latakia city came after three people including a security force member were killed a day earlier, as thousands protested in the minority's coastal heartland over a deadly mosque bombing.

State television said security forces in coastal Latakia province arrested 21 "former regime remnants who are involved in criminal acts, sectarian incitement and targeting internal security forces".

The report came after an overnight curfew entered into effect until 6:00 am (0300 GMT) on Wednesday in Latakia, a mixed city in Syria's Alawite coastal heartland that also has several Sunni-majority neighbourhoods.

The United Nations warned Tuesday that recent actions by Israel against the UN agency for Palestinian refugees risked depriving millions of people of basic services such as education and healthcare.

Israel's parliament passed new legislation on Monday formally stripping the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) of diplomatic immunity, and barring Israeli companies from providing water or electricity to the agency's institutions.

According to UNRWA, the legislation also grants the Israeli government the authority to expropriate the agency's properties in East Jerusalem, including its headquarters and main vocational training centre.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini condemned the legislation as "outrageous", decrying it on social media as "part of an ongoing, systematic campaign to discredit UNRWA and thereby obstruct the core role that the agency plays providing human-development assistance and services to Palestine refugees".

Filippo Grandi, the outgoing head of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and a former UNRWA chief, also criticised the move as "very unfortunate".

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with his Saudi counterpart, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, about ongoing tensions in Yemen and regional security, the State Department said on Tuesday.

The United Arab Emirates said on Tuesday it was pulling its remaining forces out of Yemen after Saudi Arabia backed a call for UAE forces to leave within 24 hours, in a major crisis between the two Gulf powers and oil producers

Turkey's president on Tuesday called Israel's recognition of Somaliland "illegitimate and unacceptable" as he hosted a visit by his Somali counterpart.

"Preserving the unity and integrity of Somalia in all circumstances holds special importance in our view. Israel's decision to recognise Somaliland is illegitimate and unacceptable," Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a press conference alongside Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.

A deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza is of serious concern, Britain, Canada, France and others said in a joint statement issued on Tuesday, which also called on Israel to take urgent action.

"(We) express serious concerns about the renewed deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza which remains catastrophic," read the statement from the foreign ministers of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The United Arab Emirates' defence ministry said on Tuesday it has voluntarily ended the mission of its counterterrorism units in Yemen, the only remaining forces it has in the country after ending its military presence in 2019.

It said the decision came after a comprehensive assessment following recent developments, state news agency WAM reported, citing a statement from the ministry.

The move comes after a Saudi-led coalition carried out an airstrike on the southern Yemeni port of Mukalla in what Riyadh said was an attack on a UAE-linked weapons shipment.

Israel has defended its formal recognition of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, but several countries at the United Nations questioned whether the move aimed to relocate Palestinians from Gaza or to establish military bases.

Israel became the first country to recognise Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state on Friday.

"It is not a hostile step toward Somalia, nor does it preclude future dialogue between the parties. Recognition is not an act of defiance. It is an opportunity," Israel's Deputy UN Ambassador Jonathan Miller told the UN Security Council on Monday.

Israel's recognition of Somaliland gives it a potential strategic partner countering Yemen's Houthis, who during the Gaza war traded blows with Israel and whose attacks on vessels in the Red Sea have disrupted shipping there.

The 22-member Arab League, a regional organisation of Arab states in the Middle East and parts of Africa, rejects "any measures arising from this illegitimate recognition aimed at facilitating forced displacement of the Palestinian people or exploiting northern Somali ports to establish military bases," Arab League UN Ambassador Maged Abdelfattah Abdelaziz told the council.

"Against the backdrop of Israel's previous references to Somaliland of the Federal Republic of Somalia as a destination for the deportation of Palestinian people, especially from Gaza, its unlawful recognition of Somaliland region of Somalia is deeply troubling," Pakistan's Deputy UN Ambassador Muhammad Usman Iqbal Jadoon told the council.

Israel on Tuesday said it will suspend over two dozen humanitarian organisations, including Doctors Without Borders, for failing to meet its new rules to vet international organisations working in Gaza.

The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs said the organisations that will be banned on 1 January did not meet new requirements for sharing staff, funding and operations information.

It accused Doctors Without Borders, one of the largest health organisations operating in Gaza, of failing to clarify the roles of some staff who Israel accused of cooperating with Hamas and other Palestinian groups.

International organisations have said Israel’s rules are arbitrary and could endanger staff. The ministry said around 25 organisations, or 15 percent, of the NGOs working in Gaza did not have their permits renewed.

A statement from the Hadramout Tribal Alliance has called for an "immediate, unconditional" withdrawal of the Southern Transitional Council from the Madramout and al-Mahra provinces, while affirming its support for a declaration by the head of Yemen's presidential council, Rashad al-Alimi, of a nationwide state of emergency.

The STC's head in Hadramout had previously refused to withdraw from the province, in comments made to Al-Jazeera.

The UAE denied shipping weapons to Yemeni separatists on Tuesday after Saudi-led forces said they had bombed arms sent by Abu Dhabi.

"The shipment in question did not contain any weapons, and the vehicles unloaded were not intended for any Yemeni party," government spokesperson Afra Al Hameli wrote on X, adding the arrival of the shipment had been coordinated with Riyadh.

The United Arab Emirates said on Tuesday it was disappointed with Saudi Arabia's statement regarding Yemen, and surprised by the airstrike on Mukalla.

Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday its national security was a red line and backed a call for UAE forces to leave Yemen within 24 hours, soon after a Saudi-led coalition carried out an airstrike on the southern Yemeni port of Mukalla.

Spain's leftist government has ordered seven online platforms to remove more than 100 listings for vacation rentals in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

The consumer affairs ministry said Tuesday it has identified 138 listings on platforms operating in Spain and notified the companies to "immediately remove or block" the content.

If they fail to comply, the platforms could face further government action, the statement said without specifying what the consequences would be.

Iran's response to any aggression will be harsh, President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X on Tuesday, a day after US President Donald Trump warned of a possible strike.

Trump said on Monday the United States could support another major strike if Tehran resumed rebuilding its ballistic missile or nuclear weapons programmes.

Israeli forces conducted a raid on the town of Tuqu', south east of Bethlehem, on Tuesday, detaining 15 people before later releasing them, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has doubled down on threats towards the President of Israel's Supreme Court, Isaac Amit, accusing him of "violently silencing the voice of the majority of the people and repeatedly stealing its will," according to Haaretz, citing his comments made on Army Radio.

He further went on to say that "the inevitable result of one side acting with violence is that the other side also has to act with ivolence adn bend its arm," adding that "whoever tramples me, I trample back. Huge parts of the public are being trampled; the ballot slip is being trampled in a shredder."

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday called on the UAE to withdraw its forces from Yemen and cease providing support to any groups in the country within 24 hours, backing a similar call from the Yemeni government in Aden.

"The Kingdom stresses the importance of the sisterly state of the United Arab Emirates responding to the Republic of Yemen's request for the withdrawal of its military forces from the Republic of Yemen within 24 hours, and for the cessation of any military or financial support to any party inside Yemen," the foreign ministry said in a statement published online.

A Saudi-led military coalition said it struck the Yemeni port of Mukalla after two ships carrying weapons for separatist forces arrived from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.

Coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said a "limited strike" was carried out this morning at "the request" of the head of Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) after vessels from Fujairah unloaded "a large quantity of weapons" for the Southern Transitional Council (STC).  

He added that the ships had entered Mukalla on 27 and 28 December without the coalition's permission and with their tracking devices disabled, calling it "a blatant violation" of ceasefire efforts.  

The strike follows Saudi air strikes on STC forces on 26 December - a move seen as an attempt to halt the UAE-backed group's advance in southern Yemen.   

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said yesterday that the army will continue to enforce its ban on foreign journalists entering Gaza, alleging it endangered Israeli forces, according to Haaretz.

"Repeated violations by Hamas lead to an immediate response by the Israeli army that could endanger reporters and our soldiers, and due to the classification of the issue, we cannot elaborate," Haaretz quoted Katz as saying.

Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering Gaza since the start of the war and has itself killed over 200 Palestinian journalists and media workers in Gaza, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The Foreign Correspondents' Association in Israel has filed two petitions against the ban to Israel's Supreme Court, so far without success.

Nearly half of the journalists killed globally this year were by Israeli forces in Gaza.