*Majed al-Ansari, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, says negotiations between Oman and Iran on the future of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz have reached an advanced stage.

*Three people have been killed after Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked an unidentified commercial ship in Bab al-Mandeb strait in the Red Sea, our team on the ground reported citing the government. There has been no immediate comment by the Houthis.

*The Middle East cannot remain indefinitely in a state of neither war nor peace, Anwar Gargash, a senior diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, has said, adding that the region’s stability and the future of its peoples “require clarity in vision and direction”. (Aljazeera, 2026-08-11)