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A health officials check the body temperature of worshippers during Tehran's first Friday prayer after a nearly two-year break due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Tehran, Iran, on Oct 22, 2021. (Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS) - 

Iran has banned the entry of travellers from Britain, France, Denmark and Norway for 15 days as part of curbs following the discovery of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19 in the Middle East's worst-hit country.

State television said on Sunday a similar ban imposed in late November on travellers from South Africa and seven neighbouring countries was also extended for 15 days.

Health authorities also indefinitely halted land travel to neighbouring Turkey, a popular tourist destination, the broadcaster said.

Iran, the pandemic's epicentre in the Middle East, has reported just 14 confirmed Omicron cases so far but media reports said detection kits were not widely available and officials have warned of a possible rapid spread within weeks.

The country has suffered 131,400 deaths in five waves of COVID-19 infections since February 2020.

Nearly 51.3 million of Iran's population of about 85 million have received two doses of coronavirus vaccine//CNA

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks at the weekly cabinet meeting in Kibbutz Mevo Hama in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, on Dec 26, 2021. (Photo: REUTERS/Nir Elias) - 

A major Israeli hospital will begin administering a fourth COVID-19 vaccine shot to 150 staff on Monday (Dec 27) in a trial aimed at gauging whether a second booster is necessary nationwide, the facility said on Sunday.

Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv said its trial would shed light on the efficacy of a fourth dose and help decision-makers set health policy in Israel and abroad.

Israel has reported 1,118 confirmed cases of the fast-spreading Omicron coronavirus variant, with the number of people infected by it doubling every two days.

A Health Ministry panel of experts has recommended offering a fourth dose of the Pfizer /BioNTech vaccine to Israelis aged 60 and over who received a booster shot at least four months ago.

But final approval by the ministry's director-general is still pending amid public debate as to whether sufficient scientific information is available to justify a new booster drive.

Sheba Medical Center did not say how long its trial would last.

"We will examine the fourth dose's effect on the level of antibodies and morbidity and we will gauge its safety," it quoted Gili Regev-Yochay, the study's director, as saying. "We will understand whether it is worthwhile to administer a fourth shot, and to whom."

The 150 Sheba medical workers taking part in the trial, which the hospital said had received Health Ministry approval, got booster shots no later than Aug 20.

Separately, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's office said he tested negative on Sunday for COVID-19 after his 14-year-old daughter was infected. It said he would self-isolate//CNA

Saudi-led coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki said during a press conference that the Huthi rebels were "militarising" th Yemen (Photo: SAUDI TV/AFP/-) - 

The Saudi-led coalition on Sunday (Dec 26) accused Iran and Hezbollah of helping Yemen's Huthi rebels to launch missiles and drones at the kingdom, where two people were killed.

Since the coalition intervened almost seven years ago to support Yemen's government, Saudi Arabia has regularly accused Iran of supplying the Huthis with sophisticated weapons and Hezbollah of training the insurgents.

Tehran denies the charges. Lebanon's Iran-backed Shiite militant movement Hezbollah has previously denied sending fighters or weapons to Yemen.

The latest Saudi accusation came as the coalition intensified an aerial bombing campaign against the Iran-backed Huthis in retaliation for deadly attacks on the kingdom.

Coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki told a news conference the Huthis were "militarising" Sanaa airport and using it as a "main centre for launching ballistic missiles and drones" towards the kingdom.

Malki showed reporters a video clip which he said depicted "the headquarters of Iranian and Hezbollah experts at the airport" where, he alleged, "Hezbollah is training the Huthis to booby-trap and use drones".

Malki showed other clips which he said showed a Hezbollah member placing explosives in a drone, and a man he identified as a Hezbollah official telling Huthi members "we must strengthen our ranks".

The footage could not be independently verified.

The Arab military coalition led by Riyadh intervened in Yemen in 2015 to back the internationally recognised government, a year after the Huthis overran the capital Sanaa.

Since then, tens of thousands of people have been killed, in what the United Nations has described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The Huthis come from the minority Zaidi Shiite sect of Islam and have their traditional stronghold in the mountainous north of Yemen.

Between 2004 and 2010, they fought six wars against Yemen's then-government and battled Saudi Arabia in 2009-2010 after storming over the border.

The deaths of two people overnight Friday from a rebel missile strike on the Saudi city of Jazan were the first such deaths in the kingdom in three years.

On Sunday, Malki said the international community must "stop hostile acts by this terrorist organisation," a reference to Hezbollah.

Since January 2018, he said, the Huthis have launched 430 ballistic missiles and 850 drones towards Saudi Arabia.

Earlier Sunday the coalition said it had struck a Huthi rebel camp in Sanaa, destroying weapons warehouses.

On Saturday, the coalition launched what it called a "large-scale" military operation against the Huthis after the rebel missile strike that hit Jazan.

The coalition raids left three civilians dead, including a child and a woman, Yemeni medics told AFP.

Rights groups have criticised the coalition for civilian casualties in its years-long aerial bombardment.

The coalition maintains its operations are carried out in accordance with international humanitarian law, repeatedly urging the Huthis against using civilians as human shields.

Malki also accused Iran's ambassador to Sanaa, who died of COVID-19 last week after his evacuation from Yemen, of "leading the planning of military operations in Marib" - the Yemeni government's last stronghold in the north.

The Huthis warned in a statement that they will "face escalation with escalation".

World powers and the kingdom's Gulf Arab allies condemned the rebels' deadly strike on Saudi Arabia.

"Huthi attacks are perpetuating the conflict, prolonging the suffering of the Yemeni people, and endangering the Saudi people alongside more than 70,000 US citizens residing in Saudi Arabia," Washington's embassy to Riyadh said in a statement.

Ludovic Pouille, the French ambassador to Riyadh, on Twitter offered condolences to families of the victims of the "barbaric Huthi attack".

The coalition has intensified its air strikes on Sanaa, including last week on what it called "military targets" at the airport.

United Nations aid flights were interrupted as a result.

The insurgents often launch missiles and drones into Saudi Arabia aimed at its airports and oil infrastructure.

The UN's World Food Programme said it has been "forced" to cut aid to Yemen due to lack of funds, and warned of a surge in hunger//CNA

Reducing the dependence of the global economy on oil is a colossal task. (Photo: AFP/David McNew) - 

The climate crisis has put the end of oil onto the agenda, but achieving that is a colossal task given the world economy's deep dependence on petroleum.

"In 2021, several developments showed clearly that (the petroleum) industry doesn't have a future," said Romain Ioualalen at the activist group Oil Change International.

The International Energy Agency warned in May that an immediate halt to new investment in fossil projects is needed if the world is to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and to stand any chance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. 

The call was a revolution for an agency created in the wake of the first 1970 oil shock to protect the energy security of rich, oil-consuming nations.

Another major moment in 2021 was the emergence at the COP 26 climate summit in Glasgow of a coalition of nations that pledged to phase out oil and gas production, although no major oil and gas producing nation joined that group.

"It is no longer taboo to talk about the end of the extraction of hydrocarbons during international climate summits," said Oil Change International's Ioualalen.

And fossil fuels - which still represent 80 per cent of energy consumed - were explicitly blamed for driving climate change, which was not the case when the Paris climate pact was reached in 2015.

More recently, environmental defenders scored a symbolic victory when oil giant Shell decided to exit the development of the controversial Cambo oil field off Scotland saying the investment case was "not strong enough".

"We've known for several years that the end of crude oil ... is near," said Moez Ajmi, an energy specialist at professional services firm EY.

"But is the world ready to live without oil? It is still very dependent in my view."

The IEA also believes that oil demand is still set to rise. It expects it to reach its pre-pandemic level of just under 100 million barrels per day next year.

With crude prices having rebounded in the past months, oil producers are rolling in cash and can afford to pursue new projects.

"Any talk of the oil and gas industries being consigned to the past and halting new investments in oil and gas is misguided," OPEC leader Mohammed Barkindo said recently.

The head of French oil firm TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanne, said he's "convinced the transition will take place because there is a real awareness, but it will take time."

He believes the issue is being approached from the wrong end. Instead of focussing on reducing oil, attention should be shifted towards consumption.

Demand for fossil fuels "will decline because consumers have access to new products like electric vehicles," said Pouyanne.

In the first half of the year, electric vehicles accounted for 7 per cent of global auto sales, according to BloombergNEF. While that is still a small percentage, it is growing fast.

Oil Change International's Ioualalen said that arguments put forward by oil companies and producing nations are cynical and focus on the short term.

"They're trying to justify an unsustainable trajectory at any cost," he said.

"We're still far from a decarbonised economy, of course, but it is the energy system investments that are made today that will lead us there," said Ioualalen.

Whatever the horizon for the end of petroleum, industry players are still only willy-nilly preparing for it as pressure upon them mounts.

US oil majors ExxonMobil and Chevron were long holdouts but finally announced this year investments into the energy transition.

"2022 has the potential to be a truly transformational year," said Tom Ellacott, senior vice president for corporate analysis at energy research and consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie.

"It's clear that sitting on the decarbonisation sidelines isn't an option" given the increasing pressure on the oil industry.

Experts believe that 2022 will see more investment in wind and solar power as well as technology to capture carbon emissions from fossil fuel power plants and factories//CNA