Jan 10 - Egypt’s National Elections Authority declared the results on Saturday of the last 49 seats in a parliamentary election that began more than three months ago and gave President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi the super-majority he needs to amend the constitution.

The results of the final seats had been held up by reruns of voting in constituencies where initial results had been annulled.

CAIRO, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Yemen's main separatist group, the Southern Transitional Council, denied on Saturday it was disbanding, according to a statement posted on X.

The statement comes amid conflicting remarks by members on the UAE-backed group's fate, reflecting a feud between Gulf powers Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that was blown into the open by a separatist advance last month.

(Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din and Jaidaa Taha. Editing by Mark Potter)

DUBAI, Jan 10 (Reuters) - The Iranian army said on Saturday it would safeguard strategic infrastructure and public property and urged Iranians to thwart "the enemy's plots", as the clerical establishment steps up efforts to quell the country's biggest protests in years.

The Iranian military statement came after U.S. President Donald Trump issued a new warning to Iran's leaders on Friday, and after Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday declared: "The United States supports the brave people of Iran."

Anti-government chants filled the streets of Iran's capital on Saturday night, as protesters pressed the biggest movement against the Islamic republic in more than three years despite a deadly crackdown under cover of an internet blackout.

Iran has blamed the United States for the demonstrations, which ignited in Tehran two weeks ago over economic hardship and have since fanned nationwide with calls for ousting the clerical authorities.

Rights groups have reported dozens of deaths and expressed alarm on Saturday that authorities were intensifying the crackdown.

By Tim Cocks

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 10 (Reuters) - China, Russia and Iran began a week of joint naval exercises in South Africa's waters on Saturday in what the host country described as a BRICS Plus operation to "ensure the safety of shipping and maritime economic activities".

BRICS Plus is an expansion of a geopolitical bloc originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - and seen by members as a counterweight to U.S. and Western economic dominance - to include six other countries.

JERUSALEM, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published on Friday that he hopes to "taper off" Israeli dependence on American military aid in the next decade.

Netanyahu has said Israel should not be reliant on foreign military aid but has stopped short of declaring a firm timeline for when Israel would be fully independent from the U.S.

"I want to taper off the military within the next 10 years," Netanyahu told the Economist. Asked if that meant a tapering "down to zero," he said, "Yes."

Jan 10 (Reuters) - The Syrian army said on Saturday that it had finished combing through Aleppo city's Sheikh Maksoud neighbourhood, signalling a takeover from Kurdish fighters.

The Syrian army earlier said it would push into the last Kurdish-held district of Aleppo on Friday after Kurdish groups there rejected a government demand for their fighters to withdraw under a ceasefire deal.

(Reporting by Maya Gebeily; Editing by William Mallard)

Syria's Kurdish fighters said Sunday that they agreed under a ceasefire to withdraw from Aleppo after days of fighting government forces in the city.

Hours earlier, Syria's military said it had finished operations in the Kurdish-held Sheikh Maqsud neighbourhood with state television reporting that Kurdish fighters who surrendered were being bused to the north.

The military had already announced its seizure of Aleppo's other Kurdish-held neighbourhood, Ashrafiyeh.

By Steve Holland and Jonathan Landay

WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is treading carefully around the issue of mass protests in Iran amid some U.S. predictions that the unrest may not be widespread enough to challenge Tehran's clerical establishment.

In recent days Trump has warned Iranian leaders that there will be "hell to pay" if they crack down on the protest movement but has otherwise adopted a wait-and-see attitude.

BRUSSELS, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The European Union will grant Syria around 620 million euros ($722 million) this year and next for post-war recovery, bilateral support and humanitarian aid, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday.

"After years of devastation under the Assad regime, Syria's recovery and reconstruction needs are immense, and I just could see (it) by my own eyes," she said during a visit to the Syrian capital Damascus.