By Yousef Saba

DUBAI, Dec 31 - The United Arab Emirates has pursued an assertive foreign policy and carved its own sphere of influence across the Middle East and Africa, a strategy in the spotlight after a rare military escalation with Saudi Arabia in Yemen this week.

Abu Dhabi has used alliances with states or proxies, military intervention and financial support mainly to counter what it views as the destabilising threat of political Islam, specifically from groups linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

DUBAI, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Oman's foreign minister met his Saudi counterpart in Riyadh on Wednesday to discuss finding a political solution to the crisis in Yemen, Oman's Foreign Ministry said.

The meeting came a day after a Saudi-led strike on Yemen's southern port of Mukalla, which raised tensions between Riyadh and the United Arab Emirates.

In recent weeks, a Saudi-led coalition has clashed with UAE-backed southern separatists in Yemen. The UAE has said it is ending its remaining military mission there, highlighting a widening rift between the Gulf allies.

Israeli bulldozers began demolishing 25 buildings housing Palestinians in a refugee camp on Wednesday, in what the military said was an effort to root out armed groups in northern areas of the occupied West Bank.

The buildings, home to some 100 families, are in the Nur Shams camp, a frequent site of clashes between Palestinian militants and Israeli forces.

Israeli military bulldozers and cranes tore through the structures early Wednesday, sending thick plumes of dust into the air, an AFP journalist reported. Many residents watched from a distance.

Israel plans to ban 37 aid organisations from operating in Gaza from Thursday unless they hand over detailed information on their Palestinian staff, despite mounting criticism from the United Nations and the European Union.

Several NGOs have told AFP the new rules will have a major impact on food and medical shipments to Gaza, and humanitarian groups warn there is already not enough aid to cover the devastated territory's needs.

Israel's deadline for NGOs to provide the details expires at midnight on Wednesday.

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.