DUBAI, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's 90-year-old King Salman was undergoing medical tests in a hospital in Riyadh, the state news agency said on Friday.

King of the world's biggest oil exporter and a major U.S. ally in the Middle East, he had received medical care for lung inflammation in 2024.

He last chaired a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, according to state news agency SPA.

(Reporting by Ahmed Elimam;Editing by Alison Williams and Andrew Cawthorne)

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi, Mahmoud Hasano , Jonathan Spicer and Timour Azhari

Jan 15 (Reuters) - Syrian troops are poised to attack towns in the north and east held by Kurdish fighters, sources familiar with the matter said, to pressure autonomy-minded Kurds into making concessions in deadlocked talks with the Damascus government.

MOSCOW, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Iran in separate calls on Friday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and said that Moscow was willing to mediate in the region, the Kremlin said.

Tehran has cracked down hard on nationwide protests that broke out late last month, prompting U.S. President Donald Trump to warn he might intervene. Last year, Israel and the United States both bombed Iranian nuclear sites, and Iran fought a 12-day war with Israel.

By Joey Roulette and Cassell Bryan-Low

WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Iran’s crackdown on dissidents is shaping up as one of the toughest security tests yet for Elon Musk’s Starlink, which has served as a lifeline against state-imposed internet blackouts since its deployment during the war in Ukraine.

By Parisa Hafezi and Nayera Abdallah

Dubai, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Iran's deadly crackdown appears to have broadly quelled protests for now, according to a rights group and residents, as state media reported more arrests on Friday in the shadow of U.S. threats to intervene if killing continues.

After President Donald Trump's repeated threats of military action against Iran in support of protesters, fears of a U.S. attack have retreated since Wednesday, when Trump said he'd been told killings in the crackdown were easing.

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 16 (Reuters) - South Africa's defence ministry said on Friday that Minister Angie Motshekga had launched an inquiry into Iran's participation in the BRICS+ naval exercises held in South African waters over the past week.

The defence ministry said in a statement that the inquiry would seek to determine whether South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's instructions regarding Iran's involvement were misrepresented and/or ignored.

Protests in Iran have subsided after a crackdown that has killed thousands under an internet blackout, monitors said Friday, a week after the start of the largest demonstrations in years challenging the country's theocratic system.

Reza Pahlavi, the US-based son of Iran's late shah, however, said he was confident the Islamic republic would fall and called for intervention, though the threat of new military action by the United States against Iran has appeared to have receded for the time being.

MOSCOW, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the situation in the Middle East and Iran by phone on Friday, the Kremlin said.

Putin offered Netanyahu Russia's help in mediating in regards to Iran, and told the Israeli leader he was "in favour of intensifying political and diplomatic efforts to ensure stability and security in the region," the Kremlin said.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Gleb Bryanski)

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa will hold talks with Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin Tuesday as Germany seeks to step up deportations of Syrians, despite unease about continued instability in their homeland.

On his first visit to Germany since ousting Syria's longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, Sharaa is also set to meet President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The former Islamist rebel chief has made frequent overseas trips as he undergoes a rapid reinvention, including to the United States and France, and a series of international sanctions on Syria have been lifted.

LESBOS, Greece, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Over two dozen aid workers involved in refugee rescues in Greece were acquitted of migrant smuggling charges in a multi-year case that rights groups said was a baseless attempt to ban aid for refugees heading to Europe.

European Union countries, including Greece - where more than one million people came ashore during Europe's refugee crisis in 2015-16 - are tightening rules on migration as right-wing parties gain ground across the bloc.