DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates will launch the first phase of its national passenger railway network in 2026, connecting 11 cities and regions across the country.

The network will link major urban centres such as Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Fujairah, while also extending rail services to more remote areas, particularly in Abu Dhabi’s western Al Dhafra region and parts of Sharjah.

Several new stations will be located in Al Dhafra, Abu Dhabi emirate, a vast desert and coastal region west of the capital.

These include Al Sila’, near the Saudi border around 450 km from Dubai; Al Dhannah and Al Mirfa, coastal towns about 370-400 km west of Dubai; Madinat Zayed, the administrative centre of Al Dhafra around 235 km from Dubai; and Mezaira’a, near the Liwa Oasis on the edge of the Empty Quarter desert, roughly 340 km from Dubai.

In the Sharjah emirate, stations will be developed in Al Faya, an inland desert area around 150–180 km from Dubai and Al Dhaid, a farming and oasis town about 140 km east of Dubai.

Etihad Rail said the trains will offer a modern travel experience with Wi-Fi, power outlets and seating for up to 400 passengers per train, providing a faster and congestion-free alternative to road travel.

Officials said the project will support economic growth, boost domestic tourism and strengthen connectivity between the UAE’s emirates.

The passenger network builds on the UAE’s freight rail system, which has been operational since 2023.

President Donald Trump said on Monday any country that does business with Iran will face a tariff rate of 25% on trade with the US, as Washington weighs a response to the situation in Iran, which is seeing its biggest anti-government protests in years.

“Effective immediately, any country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

 Tariffs are paid by US importers of goods from those countries. Iran has been heavily sanctioned by Washington for years.

“This order is final and conclusive,” Trump said without providing any further detail.

There was no official documentation from the White House about the policy on its website, nor information about the legal authority Trump would use to impose the tariffs, or whether they would be aimed at all of Iran’s trading partners.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Iran, which had a 12-day war with US ally Israel last year and whose nuclear facilities the US military bombed in June, is seeing its biggest anti-government demonstrations in years.

Trump has said the US may meet Iranian officials and that he was in contact with Iran’s opposition, while piling pressure on its leaders, including threatening military action.

Tehran said on Monday it was keeping communication channels with Washington open as Trump considered how to respond to the situation in Iran, which has posed one of the gravest tests of clerical rule in the country since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Demonstrations evolved from complaints about dire economic hardships to defiant calls for the fall of the deeply entrenched clerical establishment.

US-based rights group HRANA said it had verified the deaths of 599 people – 510 protesters and 89 security personnel – since the protests began on December 28.

While airstrikes were one of many alternatives open to Trump, “diplomacy is always the first option for the president,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Monday.

During the course of his second term in office, Trump has often threatened and imposed tariffs on other countries over their ties with US adversaries and over trade policies that he has described as unfair to Washington.

Trump’s trade policy is under legal pressure as the US Supreme Court is considering striking down a broad swathe of Trump’s existing tariffs.

Iran, a member of the OPEC oil producers’ group, exported products to 147 trading partners in 2022, according to the World Bank’s most recent data.

• JD Vance spox denies report pushing diplomacy over Iran strikes.
• Iran says nuclear talks with US ongoing despite rising tensions.
• Iranians use Starlink to bypass nationwide internet blackout.
  

WASHINGTON: Some senior aides in President Donald Trump’s administration, led by Vice President JD Vance, are urging Trump to try diplomacy before strikes against Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing US officials.

The White House was weighing an offer from Tehran to engage in talks regarding its nuclear program as Trump seemed to eye authorising military action against Iran.

A spokesman for Vance said the Journal’s report was not accurate.

“Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Rubio together are presenting a suite of options to the president, ranging from a diplomatic approach to military actions,” said William Martin, Vance’s communications director. “They are presenting those options without bias or favour.”

The development came a day after Tehran said it was keeping communication channels with Washington open as US President Donald Trump considered how to respond to Iran’s tackling of nationwide protests.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Tehran was studying ideas proposed by Washington, though these were “incompatible” with US threats.

“Communications between (US special envoy Steve) Witkoff and me continued before and after the protests and are still ongoing,” he told Al Jazeera.

Adding to threats of military action, Trump late on Monday announced that any country doing business with Iran, a major oil producer, will face a new tariff of 25% on its exports to the US.

“This Order is final and conclusive,” Trump said in a social media post, without providing further detail about the legal authority he would use to impose the tariffs, or whether they would be aimed at all of Iran’s trading partners.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York declined to comment on Trump’s tariff announcement. Iran, already under heavy US sanctions, exports much of its oil to China, with Turkiye, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and India among its other top trading partners.

Meanwhile, some Iranians are still using Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service despite a nationwide communications blackout, three people inside the country said, the latest example of Starlink being used to counter internet shutdowns in geopolitical flashpoints.

But Starlink, which beams its service directly from thousands of low-earth orbit satellites, is still working in some places in Iran, despite being banned by authorities there, three people using Starlink in the country told Reuters. One of them, in Western Iran, said he knew dozens of people using Starlink and that users in border towns and cities were largely unaffected.

Alp Toker, founder of internet monitoring group NetBlocks, said he has heard from people in the region that there is still some Starlink access in Iran, though service appears reduced.

“It is patchy, but still there,” he said.