Algeria has decided to sever diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), saying it had exhausted all efforts to preserve ties amid months of escalating tensions between the two countries.

In a statement issued on Thursday, Algeria’s Foreign Ministry said it had repeatedly raised concerns with Abu Dhabi over UAE’s “hostile actions” and had made extensive efforts to prevent the disputes from causing irreparable damage to bilateral relations.

“Despite these numerous warnings, the United Arab Emirates has persisted in these actions, which have reached a point where they can no longer be considered acceptable or tolerable within the framework of relations between two sovereign states, or remain unanswered,” the ministry said.

Algeria informed the UAE ambassador of the decision and gave him 48 hours to comply, formally ending diplomatic ties after months of mounting tensions.

The rift has deepened over Algeria’s concerns about what it regards as an increasingly interventionist UAE policy across North Africa, the Sahel and West Asia, including countries close to Algeria’s borders.

Among the sources of tension is Libya, where the UAE has provided extensive political and military support to Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, commander of the self-styled Libyan National Army, including drones and other military equipment.

Algiers has also accused the UAE of backing the civil war in Sudan, where Abu Dhabi has been providing support to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

In April 2024, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, in remarks widely understood to be directed at Abu Dhabi, said, “Wherever there is conflict, the money of this state [the Emirates] is there, in Mali, Libya, and Sudan.”

A UN fact-finding mission has documented mass killings, sexual violence and other atrocities committed by the RSF in and around El-Fasher, a city in western Sudan, saying in February that the group’s actions pointed to a “genocidal path” targeting the Zaghawa and Fur communities.

The Algerian president has also referred to an unnamed Gulf state as a “midget state,” maintaining that it sought to interfere in matters where Algeria had prevented major powers from intervening.

On February 7, Algeria began withdrawing from its bilateral air-services agreement with the UAE, signalling deteriorating relationship between the two countries.

The rift has also been fueled by the UAE’s close ties with Morocco, Algeria’s regional rival. Abu Dhabi has backed Rabat’s position on the disputed Western Sahara and opened a consulate in Laayoune, the largest city in the disputed territory, in 2020.

The UAE’s normalization of relations with Israel has further widened the divide with Algiers, which has firmly rejected the so-called Abraham Accords.

Republican Representative Ashley Hinson of Iowa has criticized the unprovoked US-Israeli war of aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran, declaring that ordinary Americans should no longer pay the price for a war that has spectacularly backfired on its architects.

Hinson, who is running for a US Senate seat, posted on the social media platform X that “Iowans are being squeezed and shouldn’t have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line for the war in Iran.”

She called for immediate measures to ease soaring fuel and living costs, including suspending the gas tax, pausing diesel exports, expanding E-15 ethanol use, reinstating the $1-per-gallon biodiesel tax credit, and creating a diesel relief program for farmers and truckers.

“These actions to lower costs are needed ASAP, and the war needs to be brought to a successful and immediate end,” Hinson wrote, while insisting the highway trust fund must still be replenished to avoid further infrastructure decay.

The remarks come as the Trump administration’s illegal war has failed to achieve any of its stated objectives. Iranian forces have responded with successive waves of precision missile and drone strikes under Operation True Promise, dismantling US bases across the region, destroying significant radar capabilities, and imposing staggering military and economic losses on the aggressors.

US war goals remain unmet more than six months into the war, with Iranian retaliation turning the tables through asymmetric capabilities that have become the “enemy’s worst nightmare.” The aggression has driven up global energy prices, directly hitting American consumers at the pump and grocery stores, while Iran has emerged stronger, having successfully defended its sovereignty and supported regional resistance forces.

Hinson’s call for an “immediate end” underscores the growing domestic backlash within the United States against a quagmire engineered by Trump and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Economic analysts have warned of tens of billions in direct military costs to American taxpayers, compounded by broader damage from disrupted oil flows and regional instability.

Iranian officials have repeatedly stressed that the Islamic Republic seeks neither war nor escalation but will deliver crushing, proportionate responses to any aggression.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is pushing the US military to the brink of a “breakdown” through sustained attacks on American bases and warships across West Asia, according to US officials familiar with military operations in the region.

Citing two US officials familiar with military operations, The Intercept reported on Tuesday that sustained Iranian retaliatory attacks on US bases and warships had severely strained American military readiness.

One of the officials cautioned that the mounting pressure could eventually lead to a “breakdown” in the military’s ability to effectively sustain the war on Iran.

The officials pointed to depleted stocks of defensive munitions, mounting casualties, maintenance problems, prolonged troop deployments and increasingly difficult logistics as signs of the growing pressure on US forces.

The report said the mounting pressures had further intensified concerns over the Pentagon’s already strained budget, casting doubt on repeated assurances by the Trump administration about the strength and readiness of the US military.

The report added that Iran’s ability to overwhelm US air defenses in the region with drones and advanced ballistic missiles had left the US military in a precarious position.

One official said the Trump administration had failed to properly assess Iran’s military capabilities, while the other pointed to Washington’s “complete lack of planning” for the war.

One of the officials said Iran’s recent attacks on US warships with ballistic missiles represented a “go for broke” strategy aimed at increasing economic pressure on Washington ahead of the US midterm elections.

The officials also pointed to damage inflicted on key US military facilities across the region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said financial figures reflect “structural, deep, profound shifts” in the global economy as world continues to lose trust in US dollar hegemony.

Speaking on Friday at the BRICS Business Forum Leaders’ Session in New Delhi, India, Putin said the figures reflect “structural, deep, profound shifts” as the world is increasingly losing confidence in the American financial model.

Putin highlighted the BRICS’ mission to expand its sphere of influence and gain a bigger share of the global market.

He said BRICS mission is to grow and criticized abortive attempts by the United States and its allies to preserve US’ imminent decline, pointing out that the loss of trust in the US Dollar is accelerating its decline as a global hegemonic power, replaced by a multipolar world.

Putin said the “Old Leaders” of the global economy are being replaced by new engines of growth.

The Russian president said the BRICS countries are now driving global economic growth in the emerging multipolar world and they are rapidly expanding their economic activities through large domestic markets, rapid urbanization, and increased trade.

He said economic competition between BRICS and the West has turned into state level rivalry as countries compete for economic influence.

Putin emphasized the importance of energy and supply routes in this rivalry between BRICS and the West.

He said these two have become a key focus point amid the escalated geopolitical tensions.

Stronger economic partnerships are key to global growth, he pointed out, reminding that expanding business ties and long-term partnerships are essential to strengthening the existing bonds between BRICS members states and their global partners.

Putin is on a three-day visit to India to attend the 18th BRICS summit.

The Ansarallah-led Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) have advanced rapidly along Yemen’s western coast and taken control of key positions overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

The YAF has stormed several Red Sea islands and advanced toward the entrance of the strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait, several reports said Thursday.

The forces earlier captured the city of Mokha from Saudi-backed forces. Reports said they also reached the Hanish Islands and seized Zuqar Island.

Local sources told Al-Araby TV that Ansarallah-led forces took control of Mayun, a strategic island in the Bab al-Mandab Strait. The UAE has established military and intelligence sites on Mayun and other Yemeni islands in cooperation with Israel, according to the reports.

Tasnim news agency, citing its correspondent in Sana’a, reported that the Yemeni Armed Forces had taken control of the key al-Ardhi port area on Bab al-Mandab.

The move gives the YAF control of Yemen’s coastline overlooking the strategic waterway and could allow forces fighting Saudi mercenaries to exert greater influence over maritime traffic between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The reported capture of Bab al-Mandab, whose name means the “Gate of Tears,” would give the Sana’a government major leverage over maritime traffic entering and leaving the Red Sea.

“Maritime navigation is safe, and the security of navigation has nothing to do with the skirmishes that were extinguished in the western coast districts,” Deputy Foreign Minister of the Sana’a government Abdul Wahid Abu Ras was quoted as saying by SABA news agency on Thursday.

Top Yemeni negotiator and spokesman Mohammad Abdul Salam also said, “Red Sea navigation is safe” and that “operations will cease when the aggression ends.”

“What the YAF has carried out in certain coastal areas is a national operation within the framework of asserting Yemeni sovereignty and addressing the challenges and ambitions that threaten civil peace,” he added.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy announced that it has successfully intercepted and captured a highly advanced, unmanned American underwater vehicle at the entrance of the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the IRGC Navy stated that the seizure was carried out in the early hours of the day following a “complex intelligence and operational action.”

The unmanned submersible incorporates some of the world’s most advanced underwater technology and was delivered to the US terrorist military in 2025, the statement said.

The IRGC announced that photographic evidence and detailed footage of the captured US asset would be released in the coming hours.

Iranian news agency Tasnim identified the captured system as a Dive-LD, an autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle developed by US defense technology company Anduril Industries and first delivered to the US Navy’s Unmanned Undersea Vehicle Group 1 in 2025.

The vehicle is approximately 5.8 meters long, has a diameter of about 1.2 meters and weighs roughly 2.7 tonnes.

Its published specifications include an endurance of up to 10 days underwater and a maximum operating depth of around 6,000 meters.

Designed as a modular autonomous platform, the Dive-LD can be configured for missions including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, seabed mapping, infrastructure inspection and mine-countermeasure operations.

The capture comes amid a sharp escalation between Iran and the United States over the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most strategically important maritime chokepoints.

The waterway has increasingly become a key arena in the US war on Iran, prompting Tehran to assert greater control over maritime activity in and around the strait.

Recent military exchanges have included US strikes on Iranian oil tankers and Iranian missile attacks targeting US naval forces.

On September 6, Iran said it had struck a US unmanned vessel attempting to enter a restricted area near Hormuz.

The capture of the unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) marks the latest in a long history of Iran intercepting and seizing advanced Western military technology.

Over the past decade, Iranian forces have successfully downed or captured numerous high-value US assets, including the RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone, MQ-9 Reaper drones, and various underwater gliders and surface vessels in the Persian Gulf.

Reverse-engineering these captured technologies have historically played a significant role in accelerating Iran’s domestic drone and unmanned naval programs.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei has pointed to an official Qatari document submitted to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) confirming that the Islamic Republic’s lawful defensive operations against American forces stationed on Qatari soil were directed solely at US military facilities.

In a post on X on Thursday, Baghaei quoted the Qatari contribution to an ITU Council extraordinary session, which stated that Iran’s strikes “were directed towards US military facilities. […] No civilian areas have been targeted.”

The document, prepared as a safety and security risk assessment, noted that “almost all of the attacks were directed towards US military facilities, with the one exception of an attack against the gas facilities at Ras Laffan on 18th March.”

It added that no civilian areas had been targeted and assessed the current risk to Qatar’s security from ongoing operations as low.

Baghaei stated that the sole exception cited by Qatar involved facilities that were serving US military aggression against Iran. “It should be recalled, however, that the facilities struck that day were serving US military aggression against Iran,” he wrote.