AL-MUKALLA: Yemen’s information minister has called for stronger international action to rein in Iran’s destructive activities, warning that Iran is arming the Houthis to weaken the country and gain control over international trade and energy through the Red Sea.

TEHRAN: Iranian naval forces have seized a foreign-registered ship they said was smuggling fuel in the Gulf and arrested its crew, state media reported on Saturday.
“A foreign vessel carrying 757,000 liters of smuggled fuel has been seized,” the state broadcaster’s website quoted a commander of the Revolutionary Guards maritime forces as saying.
“The seven crew members, who are foreign nationals, have been arrested and handed over to judicial authorities,” General Ramazan Zirahi added, without specifying their nationalities.

FRANKFURT/TEHRAN: France, Germany and Britain have urged Iran to agree to a proposed relaunch of the agreement limiting its nuclear program, saying final texts of a deal have been readied but Iran “has chosen not to seize this critical diplomatic opportunity.”
The three European governments said in a joint statement Saturday that Iran has instead raised “separate issues” and “continues to escalate its nuclear program way beyond any plausible civilian justification.”

LONDON: Three Americans who were detained by the Iranian government for over a year are suing their former captors, arguing that they are owed damages by the Tehran regime for the suffering and torture they endured while being imprisoned on baseless charges of espionage.

The trio — Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal — were hiking on the Iranian border with Iraq in 2009 when they were seized.

Shourd and Bauer, who are both journalists and were formerly married, and Fattal are having their lawsuit overseen by federal judge Richard Leon in Washington.

RABAT: Dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators protested outside Morocco’s parliament Friday against the kingdom’s normalization of ties with Israel after the Jewish state recalled its top envoy from Rabat amid a probe, AFP correspondents said.
Around 100 people chanted slogans against the rapprochement between Morocco and Israel, criticizing its ambassador David Govrin and Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita.