Turkey has agreed to gradually withdraw forces from a strategic military base in northern Iraq and hand over its control to the Iraqi government, following a meeting between the two countries' leaders on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Iraq, meanwhile, pledged to remove armed groups that Turkey considers security threats from the region of Sinjar, in northwestern Iraq, according to a joint statement issued after the meeting late Wednesday between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi.

The Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen's Houthis said Thursday that its forces intercepted six ballistic missiles fired by the Iran-backed group, thwarting attacks on the Saudi cities of Taif and Yanbu.

"Escalations and violations by the terrorist Houthi militia will be dealt with firmly," said coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki in a series of posts on X.

A moderate earthquake shook southeast Turkey and parts of Syria on Thursday, sending people rushing out of buildings in panic. There were no immediate reports of any damage.

The magnitude 5.4 quake was centered in Sanliurfa province, near the border with Syria, according to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Agency.

A Hamas spokesman said the group is ready to move forward with the next steps of a peace agreement, after Trump’s Board of Peace unveiled a six-month, $2.45 billion plan for Gaza's reconstruction. The board announced the proposal in New York on Wednesday.

The Hamas spokesman, Hazem Qassem, expressed the Palestinian militant group’s “full readiness to implement the Board of Peace’s roadmap” but made no mention of any disarmament plans. Israel has said it will not allow reconstruction to move forward until Hamas disarms.

Israel's increasingly isolated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived in New York to address the United Nations General Assembly, but no meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump is planned.

The Israeli prime minister's brief stay in New York for his speech at the U.N. General Assembly includes meetings with several world leaders, according to his office — but not Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio or any Arab leaders.

Iranian media said on Thursday that the United Arab Emirates had suspended flights operated by Iran's airlines, to comply with U.S. sanctions.

"All flights by Iranian airlines to the United Arab Emirates have been cancelled since midnight," the ISNA news agency said.

An adviser to Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei warned on Thursday that Tehran may expand the Middle East war to the Indian Ocean if the U.S. or Israel attacks again.

"Since the conflict has spread from the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz to the Red Sea, it is possible that, in response to more war, the front will expand even further, reaching the Indian Ocean and perhaps beyond," said Yahya Rahim Safavi in a video released by Iran's Fars news agency.

The son of Israel's ambassador to the United States was gravely injured in a ramming attack in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.

Neria Leiter, a reservist in Israel's military, "needs a miracle," Ambassador Yechiel Leiter said in a social media post. The ambassador's older son, Moshe Yedidya Leiter, who also served in Israel's military, was killed in Gaza about a month after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 attack, which triggered the war in Gaza.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa insisted at the U.N. Wednesday that the Golan Heights region will remain Syrian after Colombia last month recognized Israeli sovereignty over the strategically important territory.

"Any attempts that violate our sovereignty, violate international law, will be stopped. Golan will remain Syrian territories. Any other attempts will be thwarted according to Security Council Resolution 497," al-Sharaa said at the U.N. meeting of world leaders in New York.

Yemeni factions fighting the Iran-backed Houthis are united mainly in one thing — their opposition to the rebels who control the country's north and have recently advanced along its Red Sea coastline.

But beyond that, the groups fighting under the banner of Yemen's internationally recognized government are divided by geography, foreign patronage and competing visions for what their country should look like if the Houthis are pushed back.