Rescue crews in Dubai safely evacuated a 34-story residential tower Sunday after a fire gutted portions of the building, police said.

The blaze charred the outside of the structure and sent gray smoke drifting over a major development known as Jumeirah Lakes Towers, a cluster of high-rise apartment buildings and shops on the southern edge ofDubai.

Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have asked to buy more than $7.6 billion in U.S. missile defense technology, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The orders for the Lockheed Martin-made equipment were detailed in documents posted online late Monday by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which said it had notified Congress of the request.

British Prime Minister David Cameron begins a three-day visit to the Gulf on Monday aimed at selling Typhoon Eurofighter jets and discussing regional security threats, his Downing Street office said.

Cameron will visit the United Arab Emirates on Monday and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday before travelling onwards in the Middle East. His itinerary on the rest of the trip remains undisclosed for security reasons.

A Kuwaiti opposition figure said he has been summoned for questioning after allegedly criticizing the emir on television, as the Gulf state widened a crackdown on dissent.

"I will go to the public prosecution (on Wednesday) for interrogation on the accusation of undermining the status of the emir in a televised interview in August," former Islamist MP Faisal al-Muslim said on Twitter.

The United Arab Emirates on Saturday denounced a European Union resolution which criticized the human rights situation in the Gulf country, saying it made unfounded accusations against it.

The resolution was "biased and prejudiced (and) throws accusations haphazardly without substantiating the facts," Foreign Minister Anwar Gargash said in a statement.

The United Arab Emirates could join a project to build Turkey's second nuclear power plant if South Korea is involved, Turkish energy minister said on Thursday.

"Officials from the United Arab Emirates said they could be a partner in the project if South Korea undertakes the building of the nuclear power plant plant," in northern Turkey, Taner Yildiz was quoted as saying by Anatolia news agency.

Iran's foreign ministry warned on Tuesday it could look at cutting diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates because of a festering dispute over three Gulf islands claimed by both countries.

"If making such anti-Iranian claims reaches a level that national interests lie in reducing or severing political ties... (such a move) will be implemented after consultations with experts," ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told the parliamentary news website icana.ir.

Swiss hand grenades exported to the United Arab Emirates were sent on to war-torn Syria, Swiss authorities said Friday, confirming reports that caused outcry in the fervently neutral country.

"Inquiries have shown that Swiss hand grenades delivered to UAE in 2003 and 2004 reached Syria," the Federal Department of Economic Affairs said in a statement, presenting the results of a two-month probe.

Tourists from South Asian countries that export labor to the UAE will require a university degree to get a visa as the rich Gulf state fights an illegal influx, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

Electricians, pipe fitters, masons, farmers, drivers, tailors and cleaners from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Philippines are now banned from obtaining a tourist visa, Gulf News daily said citing a senior immigration official.

A major U.S.-led naval minesweeping exercise got underway in the Gulf Sunday as tension remain high over Iran and its controversial nuclear program.

The exercise kicked off on the same day the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned of retaliation against the Strait of Hormuz, Israel and nearby U.S. bases if his country is attacked, and as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted on a "red line" from Washington, claiming Tehran is "90 percent" toward having a nuclear bomb.