Award-winning Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi said Wednesday that protests which have gripped his country in recent days aimed "to move history forward".

"Shared pain has now become a cry in the street," said the director who won the Cannes Film festival's top prize this year and has been nominated for an Oscar for his film "It Was Just an Accident".

"When there is nothing left to lose, fear falls away. Voices unite, the silence is broken, and there is no way back," he said on Instagram.

As 2025 draws to a close, Palestinians in Gaza are marking the new year not with celebration, but with exhaustion, grief and a fragile hope that their "endless nightmare" might finally end.

For residents of the battered territory, daily life is a struggle for survival.

Much of Gaza's infrastructure lies in ruins, electricity remains scarce and hundreds of thousands of people live in makeshift tents after being repeatedly displaced by the two years of fighting that began with Hamas's attack on Israel in October 2023.

A government building in southern Iran was attacked on Wednesday, authorities said, as the country's top prosecutor warned of a "decisive response" to any attempt to create instability after days of economic protests.

Spontaneous protests, driven by dissatisfaction at Iran's economic stagnation, began on Sunday in Tehran's largest mobile phone market, where shopkeepers shuttered their businesses, and have since drawn in students across the country.

By Maha El Dahan and Samia Nakhoul

DUBAI, Dec 30 (Reuters) - The withdrawal of Emirati forces from Yemen following a Saudi airstrike may help defuse a confrontation between the UAE and Saudi Arabia, but the incident has exposed simmering distrust between two Gulf oil powers with long-running differences.

The airstrike by a Saudi-led coalition early on Tuesday on the southern Yemeni port of Mukalla was followed by calls on all UAE forces to leave Yemen, and a statement from Riyadh that its national security was a red line.

LONDON, Dec 30 (Reuters) - The humanitarian situation in Gaza has worsened again and is of serious concern, Britain, Canada, France and others said in a joint statement on Tuesday that also called on Israel to take urgent action.

The statement, published online by the British Foreign Office, said Israel should allow non-governmental organisations to work in Israel in a sustained and predictable way, and ensure the U.N. could continue its work in the Palestinian enclave.

Dec 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury said on Tuesday it has added 10 individuals and entities based in Iran and Venezuela to its sanctions list, citing their aggressive weapons program.

The U.S. Treasury has designated Venezuela-based Empresa Aeronautica Nacional SA and its chair, Jose Jesus Urdaneta Gonzalez, who it said have contributed to Iran's trade of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or drones, with Venezuela.

ANKARA, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that Israel's decision to formally recognise of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland was an illegal and unacceptable step, adding that it was trying to drag the horn of Africa into destabilisation.

Speaking at a press conference alongside Somali counterpart Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in Istanbul, Erdogan also said Turkey was planning on starting offshore energy drilling off the coast of Somalia in 2026 as per a bilateral agreement, adding that it was adding two new drilling vessels to its fleet.

CAIRO, Dec 30 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates' defence ministry said on Monday it has ended the mission of its counterterrorism units in Yemen voluntarily, state news agency WAM reported.

It said the decision came after a comprehensive assessment following recent developments.

(Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din and Muhammad Al Gebaly; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Yemen has been at war since Iran-backed Houthi rebels ousted the government in 2014, triggering a Saudi-led military intervention, but a new internal conflict has been brewing in recent weeks.

The face-off involves rival armed factions loosely grouped under the government but separately backed by the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

The UAE on Tuesday said it was pulling its remaining forces out of Yemen, following a Saudi demand to withdraw within 24 hours as tensions escalate over a sweeping offensive by Abu Dhabi-backed separatists, who have refused to pull back.

MADRID, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Spain has granted Airbus exceptional permission to produce aircraft and drones using Israeli technology at its Spanish plants even though it banned military and dual-use products from Israel two months ago over its war in Gaza.

Approved last Tuesday by the cabinet and defended by several ministers this week, the exemption reflects the pressure from companies and domestic interests that some of Europe's toughest critics of Israel's recent war have faced as they attempt to impose trade sanctions.