Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Friday that pressure on his country from the United States had reached a critical and dangerous stage, speaking in India ahead of a Brics summit.

An adviser to Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei called the advance in Yemen by Tehran-backed Houthi fighters a "resounding victory" on Friday, after they seized a key island in the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait.

A group in Yemen attempted to use Anthropic's Claude chatbot to build guided rockets and missiles, the U.S. firm has revealed, as Iran-backed Houthi rebels are on the offensive in the country.

Six missiles struck the port on Friday in Yemen's strategic Red Sea city of Mocha, now under Houthi control, a local official told AFP, without specifying where they came from.

Saudi Arabia launched two airstrikes on Friday targeting the airport of the strategic city of Mocha, now under Houthi control, according to the Iran-backed group's Al-Masirah TV channel.

Iran's government on Friday called for an end to Saudi Arabia's blockade of Yemen and the immediate resumption of talks, in its first public statement since Iran-backed Houthi rebels entered a key Yemeni port and intensified their threat to a key global shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.

In a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency, Iran's foreign ministry said Yemen's sovereignty must be respected and its problems cannot be resolved through a blockade or military alliances.

In recent weeks, the United States has succeeded in loosening Iran's grip over the Strait of Hormuz while virtually shutting down Iran's own oil exports, accelerating its economic free fall.

But the war launched by the U.S. and Israel in February — intended to last a few weeks — is still far from over, and the stalemate is costly for both sides. An agreement reached in June quickly crumbled, with no sign of diplomatic progress since then. Low-level fighting persists, and the U.S. does not seem to have an exit strategy.

Algeria said Thursday it was cutting diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates following years of tension, with Algiers accusing Abu Dhabi of interfering in national and regional affairs.

"Algeria has decided to cut diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates, following the exhaustion of all means to preserve bilateral relations," Algeria's state television announced.

emen's Houthi rebels seized control of the strategic Red Sea port city of Mokha on Thursday and were advancing towards the Bab al-Mandab strait, a Yemeni military source told AFP.

Witnesses told AFP they saw rebel forces entering the city while chanting "death to America, death to Israel".

Israel opened its first embassy in Slovenia on Wednesday, boosting relations with the small European Union nation even as ties sour with some longtime allies over its policy on illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar travelled to Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital, for the occasion that asserts a shift in Slovenia's policy toward Israel under the current right-wing Prime Minister Janez Jansa.