Seven countries in the OPEC+ grouping of oil-producing countries — including Saudi Arabia and Russia — say they’ve decided to a modest increase in production starting in June as part of a commitment to “market stability.”.

Top European Union officials say the bloc is looking into funding alternative energy infrastructure in the Middle East that would circumvent conflict hot spots like the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. President Donald Trump says he has ordered the U.S. military to “shoot and kill” small Iranian boats that deploy mines to choke traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

Oil prices are rising in early trading as a standoff between Iran and the U.S. prevented tankers from using the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. President Donald Trump says the American military has blockaded Iranian ports to try to force Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Two U.S. military planes were shot down in separate incidents on Friday, escalating tensions in the ongoing conflict.

There has been little sign Friday of the war in the Mideast winding down as Israel says it faced incoming fire from Iran, and Kuwait and Bahrain also reported being under attack.

Global leaders have been scrambling to contain the rising cost of oil and gasoline since the start of the Iran war.

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to target Iran’s energy infrastructure, including its desalination plants.

Israel has pounded Tehran with airstrikes as Iranians mark Nowruz, or the Persian New Year.

U.S. President Donald Trump pledged the U.S. would “massively blow up the entirety” of the world’s largest gas field if Iran attacks Qatar again.

Iran targeted the world’s busiest international airport Wednesday and attacked commercial ships as U.S. and Israeli strikes rocked Tehran, while the United Nations’ most powerful body demanded a halt to the Islamic Republic’s strikes on its Gulf neighbors that threaten global oil supplies.

As the Iran war widens, experts say the Middle East’s real strategic weak point may be water — not oil.

Officials say Iran’s retaliatory attacks in the Middle East over strikes from Israel and the U.S. have left some of America’s partners in the Gulf frustrated over a lack of notice or adequate defense.

The war in the Middle East spiraled further as Israel and the U.S. pounded Iran.

Rainfall this week on Iran's Hormuz Island has briefly transformed the coastline of the famed Red Beach into a striking natural scene.

Iran has held its first military exercise since its 12-day war with Israel.

The war between Israel and Iran has raised concerns that Iran could try to close the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil chokepoint.

The United States has given initial approval to sell $3.5 billion worth of air-to-air missiles for Saudi Arabia’s fighter jets, the latest proposed arms deal for the region ahead of President Donald Trump’s planned trip to the region later this month.

The U.S. Navy’s top Mideast commander says Iran is “very directly involved” in ship attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels during Israel’s war against Hamas.

Iran's state media says Tehran has summoned Russia’s charge d’affaires after Moscow and Arab countries released a joint statement earlier this week challenging Iran’s claim to disputed islands in the Persian Gulf.

Iran’s supplying of bomb-carrying drones to Russia could see Moscow help Tehran’s program become more lethal, raising risks across the wider Middle East.

An oil tanker long suspected of carrying sanctioned Iranian crude oil has begun offloading its cargo near Texas.

The U.S. military is considering putting armed personnel on commercial ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, in what would be an unheard of action aimed at stopping Iran from seizing and harassing civilian vessels.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has launched a surprise military drill on disputed islands in the Persian Gulf, just as the U.S. military increase its presence in the region over recent ship seizures by Tehran.

An escalating dispute over a gas field in the Persian Gulf poses an early challenge to a Chinese-brokered agreement to reconcile regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The U.S. Navy says Iran tried to seize two oil tankers near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, firing shots at one of them.

The Mideast-based chiefs of the U.S., British and French navies have transited the Strait of Hormuz aboard an American warship.

Archaeologists say they have found the oldest pearling town in the Persian Gulf on an island off one of the northern sheikhdoms of the United Arab Emirates.

The U.S. Navy has held a joint drone drill with the United Kingdom in the Persian Gulf.

The U.S. Navy says Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized and later let go of a U.S. sea drone in the Persian Gulf.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has acknowledged that Iran took two Greek oil tankers last month in helicopter-launched raids in the Persian Gulf.

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard says it has seized two Greek oil tankers in the Persian Gulf.

The United Arab Emirates and the U.S. military intercepted two ballistic missiles fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels over the skies of Abu Dhabi early Monday.

The United Arab Emirates is suspending talks on a $23 billion deal to purchase American-made F-35 planes, armed drones and other equipment, a rare dispute between Washington and a key ally in the Persian Gulf.

France has announced multibillion-euro deals to sell fighter planes and combat helicopters to the United Arab Emirates.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are heading to the Persian Gulf to begin managing a transition to post-Afghan war relationships with traditional allies in the Middle East and beyond who were partners in the failed war against the Taliban and the concluding evacuation.

The British navy says hijackers who boarded a vessel off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf of Oman have left the ship, without elaborating.

A French senior naval officer says the Islamic State group is using stealth to regenerate its forces by developing its military capabilities underground and France is deploying its warships and aircraft in the region to help troops on the ground root out the threat.

A remotely piloted boat packed with explosives has targeted the Saudi port of Yanbu in the Red Sea.

A team of conservationists at Dubai's luxury Atlantis Hotel are releasing baby sharks bred in the aquarium into the open sea.

A South Korean oil tanker held for months by Iran amid a dispute over billions of dollars held in Seoul has been freed.

FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2021 file photo, the icon for the social media app Clubhouse is seen on a smartphone screen in Beijing. The Omani government has “forbidden the app because it was operating without the proper license,” Omar al-Abri, an official in the country’s telecommunications regulator told The Associated Press. Over the past few days, scores of users in Oman reported receiving error messages when they tried to use the platform. AdClubhouse, the invitation-only social media app, has exploded in popularity in recent months, particularly gaining traction in the Middle East where social media remains a highly contested and sometimes perilous space. Although the United Arab Emirates reassured users earlier this month that the government had not banned the app, users nationwide have reported audio glitches that frequently make listening into discussions impossible.

FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 4, 2021 file photo released by Tasnim News Agency, a seized South Korean-flagged tanker is escorted by Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats on the Persian Gulf. Iranian State TV said Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, that Iran will release sailors from the Korean tanker seized by Revolutionary Guard troops, but probe continues. (Tasnim News Agency via AP, File)TEHRAN – The sailors from a South Korean tanker seized in the Persian Gulf by Iranian troops last month are free to leave the country on humanitarian grounds, Iran’s state TV said Tuesday. The tanker crew, including sailors from Indonesia, Myanmar, South Korea and Vietnam, were in custody at the port city of Bandar Abbas near the Strait of Hormuz. In the South Korean statement, Choi urged Iran to quickly release the captain, a South Korean national, and the seized tanker.

A South Korean diplomatic delegation arrived in Iran on Sunday, Jan. 10, 2021, to negotiate the release of the vessel seized amid an escalating financial dispute between the countries, Iranian state-run media reported. A South Korean diplomat based in Iran met one of the crew members, a South Korean, last week, according to South Korean Foreign Ministry Spokesman Choi Young-sam. South Korea has requested that Iran provide evidence to back up its claim that the South Korean ship violated environmental protocols, he added. The South Korean delegation, including representatives from Seoul's Central Bank, were set on Monday to meet Iran's Central Bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati to discuss the trapped funds, semi-official Mehr news agency reported. __Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, South Korea and Isabel DeBre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told reporters after the summit that diplomatic relations would be restored in full with Qatar, although no time frame was given. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are primarily concerned about Qatar’s ties with Iran. The rift between Abu Dhabi and Doha has been deepest, with the UAE and Qatar at sharp ideological odds. Egypt’s foreign minister also attended the meeting of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, which comprises Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar. Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who spearheaded those deals, was at the summit for the signing of the Gulf declaration.

“If anybody is to be called a hostage taker, it is the South Korean government that has taken our more than $7 billion hostage under a futile pretext,” spokesman Ali Rabiei said. As the vessel's captain spoke to company security officials back in South Korea, armed Iranian troops stormed the tanker as an Iranian helicopter flew overhead, the official said. The crew included sailors from Indonesia, Myanmar, South Korea and Vietnam, according to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. South Korea’s presidential office said Tuesday it views Iran’s ship seizure “very gravely.”Foreign Ministry's spokesman Choi Young-sam said Iranian officials have assured South Korea that the ship’s crew were all safe. He said an Iran-based South Korean diplomat has been dispatched to the location of the detained ship.

In this photo released Monday, Jan. 4, 2021, by Tasnim News Agency, a seized South Korean-flagged tanker is escorted by Iranian Revolutionary Guard boats on the Persian Gulf. Iranian state television acknowledged that Tehran seized the oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif seemed to acknowledge Tehran's interest in leveraging the situation in a tweet about its nuclear enrichment. Meanwhile, Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized the MT Hankuk Chemi, with photos later released showing its vessels alongside the tanker. The South Korean news agency Yonhap quoted an anonymous company official denying the Iranian claim the ship polluted the water.

BAGHDAD – Iraq's military on Saturday said explosives experts with its naval forces successfully dismantled a mine that was discovered stuck to an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf two days earlier. The announcement came a day after Iraq confirmed reports by private security firms that a mine had been discovered attached to the side of a tanker rented from Iraq's Oil Marketing Company, known as SOMO, as it was refueling another vessel. Iraq has not provided further details, but the two private security firms said the discovery was likely a limpet mine on the MT Pola, a Liberian-flagged tanker. Soleimani headed Iran's Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force, responsible for the Islamic Republic’s foreign operations and frequently shuttling between Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. His assassination dramatically ratcheted up tensions in the region and brought the U.S. and Iran to the brink of war.

BAGHDAD – Iraqi explosives experts were working to defuse a large mine discovered on an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf and evacuate its crew, authorities said Friday. The Iraqi statement said the mine had been attached to a tanker rented from Iraq’s Oil Marketing Company SOMO that was refueling another vessel. It was the first official Iraqi confirmation that a mine was discovered on an Iraqi tanker transferring fuel in the Persian Gulf to another vessel. The Pola serves as floating fuel oil storage of Iraq’s State Organization of Marketing of Oil, said Sudharsan Sarathy, a senior oil analyst at the data-analysis firm Refinitiv. Smaller vessels carry the fuel oil to the ship, which then conducts ship-to-ship transfers in the Persian Gulf to clients.

A U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., is refueled by a KC-135 Stratotanker in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2020. The United States flew strategic bombers over the Persian Gulf on Wednesday for the second time this month, a show of force meant to deter Iran from attacking American or allied targets in the Middle East. Because of the potential for escalation that could lead to a wider war, the U.S. has sought to deter Iran from additional attacks. Iran denied involvement but was blamed by the United States for that attack. That flight was repeated this week, with two B-52s flying nonstop from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and heading home Wednesday after cruising over the western side of the Gulf.

(Ronen Zvulun/Pool Photo via AP)JERUSALEM – Israel and Bahrain on Sunday agreed to establish formal diplomatic relations, making the small Gulf country the fourth Arab state to normalize ties with Israel. While the UAE’s deal with Israel formally established ties, the agreement with Bahrain was less detailed and included a mutual pledge to follow suit. “Today we made the first formal step in bringing closer ties between the countries,” Ben-Shabbat said. Egypt and Jordan are the only other two Arab states to sign diplomatic treaties with Israel, in 1979 and 1994, respectively. Other Arab countries could follow suit, with analysts and insiders pointing to Sudan, Oman and Morocco as possibilities.