Afghanistan has accepted an offer from the United Arab Emirates to boost its presence in training Afghan forces fighting Islamist insurgents, senior government officials said, as Kabul seeks to improve ties with majority-Muslim nations.

An Emirati soldier has been killed in southern Saudi Arabia while taking part in the Saudi-led campaign against Yemen's Huthi rebels, the United Arab Emirates military said.

The United Arab Emirates signalled its desire to strengthen ties with Iraq during weekend talks with influential Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr as part of efforts by Sunni nations of the Middle East to halt Iran's growing regional influence.

The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia will introduce value-added tax next January but other countries in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council may do so later in the year, a senior UAE official said on Tuesday.

The United Arab Emirates said on Saturday that four of its soldiers died after their helicopter crashed during a routine mission in Yemen, the official news agency WAM reported.

A court in the United Arab Emirates has convicted an Iranian national for spying and aiding Tehran's nuclear program, sentencing him to 10 years in jail then deportation, local newspapers reported on Thursday.

The United Arab Emirates, one of four Arab countries that have imposed sanctions on Qatar, said on Saturday that Doha needed to change its policies before a dialogue could take place.

A senior United Arab Emirates (UAE) official said international monitoring was needed in the standoff between Qatar and its Arab neighbors, adding he saw signs that the pressure exerted on Doha "was working".

Qatar said on Monday that a U.S. media report had shown that the United Arab Emirates was involved in an alleged hack of Qatar's state news agency in late May that helped spark a diplomatic crisis in the Gulf.

Egypt is standing by the list of demands it and three Gulf Arab countries made of Qatar and will keep sanctions against Doha in place, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told his Kuwaiti counterpart on Monday.

Bahraini Foreign Ministry congratulated in a statement the Iraqi government and people over the liberation of Mosul, after it was under the control of ISIS.

Amnesty International demanded the release of a UAE national after activists on social media called on the state to free Ghanem Abdullah Mattar, who has been arrested for sympathizing with Qatar.

Qatar made a series of secret agreements with its Gulf neighbors in 2013 and 2014 barring support for opposition and hostile groups in those nations, as well as in Egypt and Yemen.

Qatar announced plans for a steep rise in Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) production capacity on Tuesday that suggested it was ready for a protracted dispute with Gulf neighbors, but Doha said it was doing all it could to reach agreement.

U.S. President Donald Trump spoke separately to the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar on Sunday to discuss his "concerns about the ongoing dispute" between Qatar and its Gulf and Arab neighbors, the White House said.

Dubai's Majid Al Futtaim , the Middle East operator of French retailer Carrefour, has acquired 26 Geant hypermarket stores in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait from BMA International.

A Qatari human rights group is hiring a Swiss law firm to help seek compensation for citizens affected by sanctions imposed by Saudi Arabia and other Arab states, two sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Eight Emirati princesses were convicted of human trafficking by a Belgian court on Friday and were given suspended jail terms and fines in a case stemming from their treatment of servants.

Qatar's attorney general said on Tuesday his country has evidence that the hacking of Qatar's state news agency was linked to countries that have severed ties with Doha.

Two years after launching headfirst into a conflict in Yemen that has no end in sight, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have astonished the world again, this time with a severe boycott of neighboring Qatar.