DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An oil pipeline that runs across Saudi Arabia was hit Tuesday by drones, the Saudi energy minister said, as regional tensions flared just days after what the...
WASHINGTON (AP) — International worries that the Trump administration is sliding toward war with Iran flared into the open Tuesday amid skepticism about its claims that the Islamic Republic poses...
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Murky claims of sabotage to oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. A drone attack on a pipeline in Saudi Arabia. A U.S. aircraft carrier strike...
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Latest on developments in the Persian Gulf, elsewhere in Mideast, amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran (all times local):
MADRID (AP) — Spain's decision to remove a frigate on training exercises from a U.S. combat fleet that is approaching the Persian Gulf was taken purely for "technical reasons," the country's...
BRUSSELS (AP) — European foreign ministers urged the United States and Iran to show restraint Monday amid fears of tensions tipping them easily into armed conflict, while Secretary of State Mike...
Reports that commercial ships have become targets of alleged sabotage near the Strait of Hormuz have focused new attention on the region as tensions have risen. A look at the key...
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates said Sunday that four commercial ships off its eastern coast "were subjected to sabotage operations," just hours after Iranian and...
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group is being deployed to the Persian Gulf to counter an alleged but still-unspecified threat from Iran, the...
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian authorities shut down a reformist magazine that had urged negotiations with the United States, local media reported Sunday.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A U.S. aircraft carrier strike group rushes toward the Persian Gulf. Decades-old B-52 bombers rumble down runways at desert air bases. The Pentagon, meanwhile,...
BRUSSELS (AP) — The Latest on the crisis surrounding Iran's decision to step away from the embattled nuclear deal with world powers (all times local):
BAGHDAD (AP) — The prime minister of Iraq says he has instructed his country's Oil Ministry to finalize an agreement with global energy giants ExxonMobil and PetroChina to lead a $53 billion...
MIAMI (AP) — Concerned by political and logistical impediments, FIFA will face resistance in Qatar to attempts to expand the 2022 World Cup to 48 teams and spread games across the Persian Gulf,...
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that previously unscheduled peace talks between the Taliban and the United States in Pakistan risk engulfing the country in regional rivalries.
AP Top Stories January 11 A
US carrier enters Persian Gulf after long absence
ABOARD THE USS JOHN C. STENNIS IN THE PERSIAN GULF (AP) — — A U.S. aircraft carrier sailed into the Persian Gulf on Friday, becoming the first since America's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in May and breaking the longest carrier absence in the volatile region since at least the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday repeated his threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for nearly a third of all oil traded by sea, if the U.S. shuts off Iran's oil exports.
State TV quoted Rouhani as saying that "if someday, the United States decides to block Iran's oil (exports), no oil will be exported from the Persian Gulf."
The strait at the mouth of the Persian Gulf is crucial to global energy supplies.
AL-JAHRA, Kuwait (AP) — On the outskirts of Kuwait City, the love Kuwaitis have for former U.S. President George H.W. Bush could be seen in 2016 on a billboard one Bedouin family put up to announce their son's wedding.
That son being Bush al-Widhan, born in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War that saw U.S.-led forces expel the occupying Iraqi troops of dictator Saddam Hussein.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's navy has acquired two new mini submarines designed for operations in shallow waters such as the Persian Gulf, the Iranian state TV reported on Thursday.
The report said one of the mini submarines — also known as midget submarines — was dubbed Ghadir-955 and was built in 18 months. The other, a previously built Ghadir-942, took 10 months to overhaul.
AL-MASNAA, Lebanon (AP) — Lebanese exporters rejoiced last month when the Syrian government opened a key land crossing with Jordan that had been closed by years of war, restoring a much-needed overland trade route to lucrative Persian Gulf markets.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Adding 16 teams to the 2022 World Cup is about far more than sports. The head of world soccer thinks the proposal can help solve the bitter diplomatic fight between host Qatar and a Saudi Arabian-led coalition trying to isolate the tiny nation.
ABOARD THE USS JASON DUNHAM, Persian Gulf (AP) — The huge pile of rusting AK-47 assault rifles is tucked into a corner below the deck of the USS Jason Dunham, serving as a grim reminder of how hard it is to catch weapons smugglers believed to be trafficking arms into Yemen.
On Thursday U.N. inspectors boarded the American guided-missile destroyer, to examine the more than 2,500 guns the crew seized in late August and determine if suspicions are true that the weapons originated in Iran.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's president on Sunday accused an unnamed U.S.-allied country in the Persian Gulf of being behind a terror attack on a military parade that killed 25 people and wounded 60, further raising regional tensions.
Hassan Rouhani's comments came as Iran's Foreign Ministry also summoned Western diplomats over them allegedly providing havens for the Arab separatists who claimed Saturday's attacks in the southwestern city of Ahvaz.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. Navy says a recent arms seizure from small ships near war-torn Yemen netted over 2,500 Kalashnikov assault rifles.
The Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet gave the updated total in a statement Wednesday. It boarded the skiff and the dhow, a traditional ship in the Persian Gulf, during a routine check in the Gulf of Aden on Aug. 28.
The Navy added: "The origin and intended destination of the skiff have not yet been determined."
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military said early Friday it seized over 1,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles being smuggled by small ships in the Gulf of Aden amid the ongoing war in nearby Yemen.
The seizure by the guided-missile destroyer USS Jason Dunham may mark the first such interdiction of weapons at sea bound for Yemen in years for American forces patrolling the region.
However, the military did not say whom they suspected of smuggling the weapons.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military is reiterating a promise to keep Persian Gulf waterways open to oil tankers as Iran renewed threats to close off the region.
Capt. Bill Urban, a spokesman for the U.S. military's Central Command, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that American sailors and its regional allies "stand ready to ensure the freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce wherever international law allows."