Iran said it had information such a move was being prepared, adding to the anxiety in a region already on edge after drone and missile strikes on Saudi Arabia.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Iran wanted to reach a deal with Washington, signalling a possible diplomatic opening as fighting across the Middle East widened and threatened global oil supplies.
Algeria abruptly severed diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates on Thursday, citing what it described as a series of "provocative or hostile" actions by Abu Dhabi but giving no specific reason for the move.
Several merchant vessels in the northern Gulf and Gulf of Oman were hit by disabling fire during military activity in the region overnight, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said on Wednesday.
U.S. President Donald Trump warned of economic consequences for any country that provided "any type of lifeline to Iran" as the United States looks to resolve a war it began alongside Israel nearly six months ago.
A tanker was boarded by six armed people who took control of the vessel and diverted it towards Somalia, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Thursday.
Four more tankers changed course in the Red Sea on Wednesday after Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen threatened the southern route out, highlighting a new risk to global oil supplies from the intensifying war between the U.S. and Iran.
Washington and Tehran have been testing the limits of escalation since their ceasefire agreement collapsed last week, raising the prospect of a return to all-out war.
On a beachfront in the coastal city of Tyre, war has finally abated just enough for children to play in the waves and families to gather under parasols as life slowly returns to southern Lebanon.
The body of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei lay in state in a vast hall in Tehran on Friday as clerics, officials, foreign dignitaries and other mourners paid their respects to Iran's late Supreme Leader, slain by U.S. and Israeli bombs.
A bomb blast at a cafe in central Damascus on Thursday killed nine people and wounded 20 others, Syria's interior ministry said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
