By Arathy Somasekhar and Anushree Mukherjee
HOUSTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Brent crude futures breached $100 a barrel on Wednesday to settle at their highest close since late May after Iran and the U.S. struck tankers in the biggest wave of attacks on shipping since the war began, threatening to worsen the disruption of energy supplies from the Middle East.
By Mike Stone and David Jeans
WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Iran's capture of aU.S. military underwater drone gives Tehran an opportunity to study and potentially reverse engineer the vessel, delivering a setback for the Pentagon and drone maker Anduril.
By Steve Holland and David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump departed Washington for Texas on Wednesday aboard the Air Force One plane gifted by Qatar after an emergency slide was accidentally deployed and was removed.
Military personnel accidentally triggered the slide, a person briefed on the matter told Reuters.
The slide was activated shortly before Trump was due to board for a flight to Dallas for thefirst-ever Republican midterm convention.The issue briefly delayed Trump's departure.
By Steve Holland and Gram Slattery
WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he had a "great" conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier in the week and that the Russian leader wanted to make a deal to end the war in Ukraine.
"He is wanting to make a deal, and if (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskiy is wanting to make a deal, that'd be very nice," Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One en route to Dallas for the Republican National Convention.
ANKARA, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Pakistan has delivered a Saudi warning to Iran to rein in its Yemeni Houthi allies after they stepped up attacks on the kingdom, in a coordinated effort to prevent the crisis from spiralling, Saudi, Pakistani and Iranian sources said.
The Houthis struck an airbase in Khamis Mushait and oil infrastructure in nearby cities on Tuesday, wounding 73 people, in one of the biggest attacks on Saudi Arabia since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in February.
Sept 9 (Reuters) - The Houthis attacked the southern Saudi cities of Abha, Khamis Mushait and Jazan with ballistic missiles and drones on Wednesday, a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said, marking the second consecutive day of Houthi attacks on the kingdom.
The Iran-aligned Houthis were continuing attacks on Saudi Arabia's national assets and infrastructure, coalition spokesperson Turki al-Malki said in a statement.
EL ALAMEIN, Egypt, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Russian state-owned arms exporter Rosoboronexport showed off drone-like missiles for its Sukhoi Su-57 fifth-generation stealth jet fighter in Egypt on Wednesday as the warplane made its African air show debut.
The jet roared over the arid landscape outside the El Alamein International Airport near the Mediterranean coast during the second installment of an exhibition meant to position Egypt as a gateway to African and Middle Eastern markets.
Sept 9 (Reuters) - A tanker carrying about 2 million barrels of Iraqi fuel oil was struck by a drone in Iraqi territorial waters on Wednesday, port officials said, and British navy-affiliated UKMTO reported that several merchant vessels in the Gulf had been hit by disabling fire overnight.
A fire broke out aboard the Panama-flagged oil tanker New Andros after it was hit in Iraqi waters at around 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Wednesday, two Iraqi port officials told Reuters.
There were no reports of casualties among the 22 crew members, the officials added.
By Francois Murphy
VIENNA, Sept 9 (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog's 35-nation board of governors has passed a resolution reporting Iran to the U.N. Security Council for the first time in 20 years for breaching its non-proliferation obligations, diplomats said on Wednesday.
LONDON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Britain had to "stand for something", Prime Minister Andy Burnham told parliament on Wednesday in a defence of his government's decision to block imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Burnham, who has been in the job since July, said Britain had long endorsed the two-state solution in the Middle East, but words needed to be backed by action.
"Leadership is about taking action where there is injustice, where we need to correct unfairness, people being driven out of their homes," he said.
