ANKARA, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan met Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Tuesday and told him Turkey was determined to take relations to a higher level in areas including renewable energy and defence industry, Erdogan's office said.

Erdogan also told the Saudi crown prince that Turkey's support for stability in Syria would continue, and Turkey would work in cooperation with Saudi Arabia to rebuild Syria, the Turkish presidency said in a statement.

(Reporting by Huseyin HayatseverEditing by Peter Graff)

DUBAI, Feb 3 (Reuters) - A group of Iranian gunboats approached a U.S.-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz north of Oman, maritime sources and a security consultancy said on Tuesday.

The Iranian boats ordered the tanker, the Stena Imperative, to stop its engine and prepare to be boarded before it could speed up and continue its voyage, maritime risk management group Vanguard said.

The vessel did not enter Iranian internal territorial waters and was escorted by a U.S. warship, the maritime risk management group said. An American official confirmed it was U.S. flagged.

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Mahmoud Issa

CAIRO/GAZA, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Palestinian women among the few people let back into Gaza after Israel's delayed reopening of the Rafah crossing under last year's ceasefire have described being blindfolded, handcuffed and interrogated by Israeli forces as they tried to get home.

Their journey from Egypt on Monday through the frontier post and across the "yellow line" zone controlled by Israel and an allied Palestinian militia group, involved lengthy delays and the confiscation of gifts including toys, one of the women said.

Feb 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. military shot down on Tuesday an Iranian drone that approached the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, a U.S. official told Reuters on Tuesday.

The Iranian Shahed-139 drone was flying towards the carrier and was shot down by a F-35 U.S. fighter jet.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )

Syrian government forces entered the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli on Tuesday as part of a deal agreed last week to gradually integrate the Kurds' forces and institutions into the state.

Their arrival in the stronghold of the Kurds' de facto autonomous administration came after government security personnel entered the mixed Kurdish-Arab city of Hasakeh and the countryside around the Kurdish town of Kobane the day before.

By Nafisa Eltahir and Khalid Abdelaziz

Feb 3 - The Sudanese army said it broke a years-long siege on the city of Kadugli on Tuesday, potentially providing tens of thousands of people a reprieve from famine and signaling a shift in the war's momentum.

The conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has displaced millions, drawn in regional powers and caused a vast humanitarian crisis since it broke out in April 2023.

MOSCOW, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, saying they had agreed to deepen cooperation in the political, economic, trade and humanitarian spheres.

According to the Kremlin statement, the two leaders also discussed the progress of their joint work within the OPEC+ format and efforts to maintain stability on global energy markets.

Saudi state news agency SPA said the prince and Putin discussed bilateral relations and regional and international developments.

(Refiles to correct spelling of Janes in 22nd paragraph)

By Alexander Dziadosz, Marine Delrue and Maria Paula Laguna

CAIRO, Feb 2 (Reuters) - The deployment of a powerful model of Turkish combat drone to a remote airstrip on Egypt’s southwestern border signals a sharp escalation in Sudan’s civil war, suggesting one of its largest neighbours is being drawn deeper into the fray, more than a dozen officials and regional experts say.

By Emily Rose

JERUSALEM, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to meet U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff on Tuesday amid efforts to revive diplomacy over a long-running dispute about Iran's nuclear programme.

The meeting was scheduled for 1430 GMT and would include the director of Israel's Mossad spy agency David Barnea, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, and Israeli Military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, two Israeli officials told Reuters.

By Steven Scheer

JERUSALEM, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Somaliland expects to reach a trade agreement soon with Israel, the first country to recognise its independence, and is willing to offer rights to valuable mineral deposits as part of a deal, its leader said in an interview with Reuters.