Saudi Arabia warned of a “hostile aerial threat” and issued a string of emergency alerts across the kingdom, including in its capital, late Friday and early Saturday.
DUBAI — Saudi Arabia warned of a “hostile aerial threat” and issued a string of emergency alerts across the kingdom, including in its capital, late Friday and early Saturday.
Also Saturday, Iran's state TV reported that a man was executed after being convicted on charges of spying for Israel's intelligence agency Mossad.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Saturday.
Alerts sound across Saudi Arabia for aerial threat
Saudi Arabia warned of a “hostile aerial threat” after issuing emergency alerts, and at least one explosion was heard in Riyadh.
The alert in Riyadh was the first for the Saudi capital since the latest escalation with Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels.
No casualties or damage were reported after the alerts were lifted. Saudi authorities didn't say what prompted the alerts or the cause of the audible explosions, but they previously reported intercepting incoming Houthi missiles and drones.
UN Security Council condemns Houthi missile attacks
The UN's most powerful body said late Friday that the Houthis' military escalation, attacks and threats “risk further expanding the conflict, threatening maritime security and international trade,” while undermining regional and international efforts to secure peace in Yemen.
It warned that continued escalation would exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation in the country.
The council's 15 members called for “practical cooperation” to prevent the Iran-backed Houthis from acquiring arms, military training, financing and other military-related assistance needed to carry out their attacks. They stressed that all countries must enforce the UN arms embargo against the rebel group.
Iran executes man accused of spying for Israel
Iran's state TV reported on Saturday that a man identified as Hossein Pedram was executed after being convicted on charges of spying for Israel's intelligence agency Mossad.
The report said Pedram passed on to Israel classified information on “sensitive military sites” in Iran's Isfahan province. It didn't say how he accessed the classified information.
Pedram was reportedly arrested after those sites, which included missile bases, were targeted in the 12-day air war by the US and Israel against Iran in June last year.
A recent surge of executions in Iran prompted an international outcry by human rights groups.
Israeli strikes kill 2 men in Gaza
Gaza's Health Ministry and Shifa Hospital officials said one man was killed in the Shijaiyah neighbourhood of Gaza City. Another man, identified as the son of the ministry's director general, was killed as he walked in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strikes.
The heaviest fighting between Israel and Hamas has subsided since a ceasefire took effect last October, but Israeli fire has killed more than 13,780 Palestinians in Gaza since then, according to health officials in the territory.
Kids return to school in war-devastated Gaza
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says more than 280,000 children in Gaza are attending school in tents and heavily damaged classrooms after years of war.
At a UNRWA-run school in Nuseirat, some classrooms have no desks, leaving children to sit on blankets on the floor. Still, some families say that a return to school brings back a familiar sense of routine that was upended by war.
UNRWA education program chief Tawfiq al-Hourani said the agency hopes to restore conditions for schooling to the state they were three years ago when it operated 182 fully equipped schools. He said 95 per cent of those schools have since been lost. About 700,000 children aged 4 to 17 in Gaza had missed formal in-person schooling for almost three school years as of April, according to UNICEF.
Pakistani, Iranian foreign ministers talk energy supply, shipping safety
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar discussed uninterrupted energy supplies and safe passage for commercial ships during a telephone call Saturday with his Iranian counterpart Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Dar underscored the importance of ensuring that ships pass safely and quickly, citing the potential effects of disruptions on developing countries and global supply chains. The statement did not provide details of Araghchi's response.
Pakistan has faced rising energy prices as the tensions spiked, increasing pressure on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's government. An Islamist party has threatened to march on the capital, Islamabad, unless the government lowers fuel prices.
Iran files charges against race manager for allowing women to run without headscarves
Iran's state TV reported Saturday that the Tehran prosecutor's office filed charges against race organisers after women participated without covering their hair because “legal and Islamic Sharia” wasn't observed.
The country's ruling theocracy requires women to wear scarves that cover their hair and loose-fitting clothes that hide their entire bodies.
Footage circulated online showing many women running the 10-kilometre race without the mandatory hair covering. Habib Sotoudehnejad, head of Tehran's sports department, said Saturday that about 5 per cent of participants violated race rules.
The race was run separately for men and women.
Hard liners in Iran seek harsh penalties against women who appear in public without covering their hair.
Turkiye pulls license of Iranian bank suspected of Revolutionary Guard links
Turkiye's banking watchdog, the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency, revoked the operating license for the Istanbul branch of Iran's Bank Mellat.
The agency said Saturday that it made the decision to protect depositors or the stability of the Turkiye's financial system.
The announcement comes as the United States is demanding other countries tighten economic measures against Iran.
Bank Mellat has been subject to Western sanctions for years and was named in 2019 as having links to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Corps. The US Treasury Department earlier this month imposed sanctions on a Turkish investment bank and two subsidiaries over alleged ties to Iran.