A senior US official personally offered several million dollars to the Indian captain of an Iranian oil tanker suspected of heading to Syria, the State Department confirmed Wednesday.

Iran on Wednesday said it would take another step away from a 2015 nuclear deal by starting to develop centrifuges to speed up its uranium enrichment but it also gave European powers two more months to try to save the multilateral pact.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday left the door open to a possible meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the upcoming U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Yemeni government officials have begun indirect talks with United Arab Emirates-backed southern separatists in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah to end fighting in Aden and other southern provinces, a Yemeni official said on Wednesday.

Iran's foreign minister said on Tuesday Tehran would further cut its commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal unless European states acted to salvage the pact by Thursday, but that this did not mean the "end of talks", Iranian news agencies reported.

Saudi Arabia has deployed more troops in southern Yemen to try to contain clashes between nominal allies in the Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Houthis that risk further fragmenting the country.

France has proposed offering Iran about $15 billion in credit lines until year-end if Tehran comes fully back into compliance with its 2015 nuclear deal, a move that hinges on Washington not blocking it, Western and Iranian sources said.

The United States, Britain and France may be complicit in war crimes in Yemen by arming and providing intelligence and logistics support to a Saudi-led coalition that starves civilians as a war tactic, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia is struggling to hold together a military coalition fighting Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen after local allies turned on each other in a power struggle that has strained Riyadh's alliance with its main regional partner, the United Arab Emirates.

Iran said on Monday it would further reduce its commitments under a 2015 nuclear deal if European parties failed to shield Tehran's economy from sanctions reimposed by the United States after Washington quit the accord last year.

The United States officially launched its joint maritime security initiative in the Gulf, with the support of Australia, the United Kingdom and Bahrain, as tensions with Iran continue to escalate.

The United Arab Emirates carried out air strikes against government forces in South Yemen on Thursday in support of southern separatists who have deployed reinforcements to take back control of the port of Aden from their supposed allies in the Saudi-led coalition.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday the United States must observe the 2015 nuclear deal and stop engaging in "economic terrorism" against the Iranian people if Washington wants to meet for talks.

Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi said on Thursday that government forces had withdrawn from Aden to prevent the city from being destroyed, according to state news agency SABA .

The Taliban said on Wednesday it was close to an agreement with U.S. officials on a deal that would see U.S. forces withdraw from Afghanistan in exchange for a Taliban promise that the country would not become a haven for international militants.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have looked inseparable on the world stage, working together to project power in the Middle East and beyond, and courting U.S. President Donald Trump to counter common foe Iran.

Iran would need three days to lift its oil production back to the level it was at before U.S. sanctions were imposed, the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh as saying on Tuesday.

Iran will not talk to the United States until all sanctions imposed on Tehran are lifted, President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday, a day after President Donald Trump said he would meet his Iranian counterpart to try to end a nuclear standoff.

Iran has deployed a naval destroyer with long-range cruise missile systems to the Gulf of Aden to provide security for Iranian ships travelling through the region, state-run Press TV reported on Monday.

Kuwait's 90-year-old emir on Monday held his first public meetings since falling ill last week, sitting down with the crown prince, head of parliament and members of his cabinet, state news agency KUNA reported.