By Daphne Psaledakis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized the importance of achieving a humanitarian ceasefire in Sudan in a call with United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed on Friday, just days after Washington's top diplomat said action was needed to cut off the flow of weapons to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
-U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to reach a deal with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman allowing Riyadh to acquire F-35 stealth fighter jets, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing a White House official.
Trump and the crown prince plan to sign economic and defense agreements during a visit to the White House scheduled for Tuesday, the report added.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
(Reporting by Bipasha Dey in Bengaluru)
The UN Security Council will vote Monday on a resolution endorsing US President Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan, diplomats said.
Last week the Americans officially launched negotiations within the 15-member Security Council on a text that would follow up on a ceasefire in the two-year war between Israel and Hamas and endorse Trump's plan.
A draft of the resolution seen Thursday by AFP "welcomes the establishment of the Board of Peace," a transitional governing body for Gaza -- that Trump would theoretically chair -- with a mandate running until the end of 2027.
Iran likely seized an oil tanker that suddenly changed course towards the country's waters Friday, two security companies said, stoking concern that Tehran has resumed maritime captures after a lull.
The ship, which had left Ajman in the United Arab Emirates destined for Singapore, was heading for Iranian waters.
Ellie Shafik of Vanguard Tech told AFP the Talara had been intercepted by Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and detained.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Palestinians in a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank held weekly communal prayers on Friday after clearing insulting graffiti, broken glass and burn marks from a mosque they say was targeted by Jewish settlers amid a spike in attacks.
Villagers in Deir Istiya who cleaned up the mosque told Reuters that settlers had smashed windows, sprayed slogans insulting Islam's Prophet Mohammed and tried to torch the building in an assault on Wednesday night.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will press for security guarantees while US President Donald Trump will urge him to normalise ties with Israel when the de facto Saudi ruler breaks a seven-year absence from Washington this week.
Saudi Arabia is unlikely to agree to normalisation at this stage, with Prince Mohammed's priority set for firmer US security guarantees after Israeli strikes in September on Qatar, an iron-clad US ally, rattled the wealthy Gulf region.
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are facing an energy crisis as water levels have plummeted at the reservoirs powering their largests hydropower stations, officials said this week.
The two landlocked Central Asian countries are heavily reliant on hydropower. Both use massive Soviet-built hydropower plants for their domestic electricity output.
The water level in the reservoir connected to Tajikistan's Nurek power plant has dropped by 2.47 metres (8.1 feet) over the last year, the state utility firm told AFP on Friday.
BERLIN (Reuters) -Cyprus said on Friday Turkey must drop its insistence on a two-state solution for the divided island if it hopes to make progress on its long-stalled bid to join the European Union.
Speaking in Berlin after talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides said Turkey's position on Cyprus was an obstacle to its EU ambitions. He also argued that Ankara should not gain access to the bloc's defence fund, known as SAFE, saying that Turkey - though a NATO member - has no defence or security agreement with the EU.
By Sfundo Parakozov
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South Africa granted entry to 130 Palestinians without travel papers after initially barring them but said it will examine accusations that an unregistered organisation arranged their trip "in an irregular and irresponsible manner".
South Africa has long supported Palestinian aspirations to statehood and filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice in 2023 accusing it of genocide in the Gaza war. Israel has denied the accusations.
By Emma Farge
GENEVA (Reuters) -Tens of thousands of people who have fled the Sudanese city of al-Fashir are unaccounted for, the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday, raising concerns for their safety after reports of rape, killings and other abuses from escapees.
Famine-stricken al-Fashir was the final stronghold of the Sudanese army in the vast, western Darfur region before it fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on October 26 after an 18-month siege.
