Category Archives: United Arab Emirates

UAE to launch Cop28 presidency with oil boss tipped for leading role

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Sultan Al Jaber, chief of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, expected to be named president of global climate talks

The United Arab Emirates will launch its presidency of global climate talks on Thursday, with the head of its national oil company likely to be given the leading role.

Sultan Al Jaber has served as climate envoy to the country, and is chief of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), the world’s twelfth-largest oil company by production, and is hotly tipped to take on the pivotal role of president of the talks.

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UAE to deport Egyptian-American activist who called for Cop27 protests

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Arrest of Sherif Osman while visiting family in Dubai raises fears for activists at Cop28 climate conference

The United Arab Emirates is preparing to deport an Egyptian-American citizen detained in Dubai who called for protests during the Cop27 climate conference in Egypt, sparking fears about the treatment of civil society during next year’s Cop28 in the Emirates.

Sherif Osman, a former Egyptian army officer who has lived in the US for decades, was detained at a restaurant in Dubai, where he had travelled with his fiancee to see family.

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Italian trapped in UAE embassy pleads with Giorgia Meloni to get him home

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Andrea Costantino says he has been in tiny room since release from prison on ‘totally unfounded’ charges of funding terrorism

An Italian man trapped for six months in his country’s embassy in the UAE has claimed he is the victim of a diplomatic spat between the two states and pleaded with Giorgia Meloni’s government to bring him home.

Andrea Costantino, 49, said he had been living a “Groundhog day-like” existence in a tiny room at the Italian embassy in Abu Dhabi since being released in late May from the emirate’s notorious maximum-security prison, Al Wathba, where he spent more than a year on charges of funding terrorism in war-torn Yemen after shipping a cargo of diesel to a client there.

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30 tonnes of cocaine seized in raids against European ‘super cartel’

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Arrests made in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Dubai, including one ‘extremely big fish’

A “super-cartel” that controlled one-third of the cocaine trade in Europe has been taken down in six countries, police have said.

The EU police agency, Europol, announced that 49 suspects were arrested during the investigation, after raids in Europe and the United Arab Emirates targeting the cartel’s “command and control centre” and logistics network.

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Row breaks out over favourite for EU’s first ever special envoy to Gulf

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Critics say former Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio lacks experience and has poor record in Gulf relations

A row has broken out over the appointment of the EU’s first ever special envoy to the Gulf, as internal critics allege the frontrunner, the former Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio, is poorly qualified for the job.

Di Maio, a former leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S), served as Italy’s foreign minister for just over three years until last month. He has now been selected by a panel of European officials as the best of four candidates to become the EU’s special representative to the Gulf states, beating veteran politicians with more experience.

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US and Israel blame Iran after drone strikes oil tanker off Oman

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Pacific Zircon, linked to Israeli billionaire, said to have been ‘hit by projectile’ but suffered only minor damage

The US and Israel have pointed the finger at Iran after an oil tanker associated with an Israeli billionaire was struck by a bomb-carrying drone off the coast of Oman.

The drone attack on the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Pacific Zircon happened on Tuesday night off the coast of Oman, a Middle East-based defence official told the Associated Press.

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Saudi Arabia is choosing friends on its own terms and Biden is not one of them

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Reactions in Washington to slashing oil supply have not concerned Mohammed bin Salman; nor have the optics of indirectly boosting Putin’s war

Mohammed bin Salman had seen it coming. The groundswell of anger in Washington was clear and building since he helped lead an Opec+ decision to cut the world’s oil supply last week.

But for the first time in the modern era of ties between the US and Saudi Arabia, there was no rush to placate hard feelings, or gloss over a rift. This was the birth of a new realpolitik, where nascent Saudi nationalism paid no heed to a historical ally and instead aligned itself to what Riyadh literally sees as a new world order.

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10,000 litres a day for each pitch: Qatar World Cup’s huge impact on Gulf waters

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Reliance on desalination comes with a big environmental cost for the region’s marine environment

As the World Cup approaches, Qatar is going to need at least 10,000 litres of water every day for each of its stadium pitches. Based in a region with virtually no access to fresh water, it is going to rely on desalination – the practice of debrining saltwater so it is drinkable.

It seems like an elegant solution – but the problem is that desalination, which is projected to boom by 37% across the Gulf region in the next five years, has huge environmental costs, in terms of the fossils fuels used to carry out the process, and the marine environment. But without it, how can the arid region possibly quench its thirst?

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‘We wouldn’t put Charles on a bus’: Gulf royals balk at Queen’s funeral protocol

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The monarchies are hopeful of stronger UK ties under King Charles, but plans for the ceremony have not gone down well

From Oman in the east to Morocco in the west, Middle East and north African royalty have been closely monitoring plans for the Queen’s funeral, but with days to go until the biggest event in modern royal history, they are unlikely to travel to London in numbers.

Monarchies have sought to divine meaning from protocol arrangements, and are largely underwhelmed by what they have seen.

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United Arab Emirates reinstates ambassador to Iran after six-year absence

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UAE scaled back ties with the Islamic republic after Iranian protests over Saudi Arabia’s execution of cleric Nimr al-Nimr

The United Arab Emirates said on Sunday that its ambassador to Tehran would resume duties within days, six years after ties were downgraded in support of Saudi Arabia.

Ambassador Saif Mohammed al-Zaabi “will resume his duties at the UAE embassy in the Islamic republic of Iran in the coming days to contribute to further advancing bilateral relations”, the Emirati foreign ministry said in a statement.

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Ex-Khashoggi lawyer Asim Ghafoor freed in UAE after money laundering conviction

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US citizen released after paying fine as United Arab Emirates court confiscates $4.9m it says illegally moved through country

The US citizen and civil rights attorney Asim Ghafoor, who had represented Jamal Khashoggi before the Saudi journalist was murdered, has been freed from custody in the UAE where he was convicted on money laundering charges.

Ghafoor was headed home to the US, said his lawyer, Faisal Gill, having been freed after paying a fine and with help from the US embassy in the UAE.

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Yemen’s warring parties agree to extend ceasefire by a further two months

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The truce will bring some relief to a country exhausted by war and famine, but critics say the Houthis will use the peace to regroup

The UN has announced that the warring sides in Yemen have agreed to extend the current ceasefire for a further two months.

Late on Tuesday the government and the Houthi rebels committed to intensify efforts on negotiations, said Hans Grundberg, special envoy for the country.

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Spiritual union: why Gulf migrants are turning to evangelical Christianity

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Pentecostalism is quietly thriving, with pastors saying churches are helping low-paid workers in crisis

Evangelical Christianity is quietly flourishing among migrant groups in the Gulf as churches provide low-paid workers facing horrific abuse with aid in times of crisis, according to pastors and parishioners across the region.

About 30 million migrant workers live in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – the muscle transforming oil-based economies into glittering 21st-century metropolises.

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UAE sentences ex-lawyer of Jamal Khashoggi to three years in prison

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US citizen Asim Ghafoor detained in Dubai and convicted two days later of money laundering and tax evasion

The United Arab Emirates has sentenced the former lawyer of Jamal Khashoggi – the dissident Saudi journalist who was killed at Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul in 2018 – to three years in prison on charges of money laundering and tax evasion.

The Abu Dhabi money laundering court also ordered Asim Ghafoor, a US citizen, to pay a fine of more than $800,000 (£675,000) stemming from his in absentia conviction, the UAE’s state-run WAM news agency reported.

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Iran earthquakes: at least five killed and village flattened, state media says

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Rescue work carried out after 12 also injured in magnitude-6.1 quake followed by two others and more than dozen aftershocks

At least five people were killed by a magnitude-6.1 earthquake in southern Iran early on Saturday, state media reported, with the area also hit by two later strong quakes of up to 6.3 magnitude.

“Five people have died in the earthquake … and so far 12 are hospitalised,” Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, the head of emergency management in Hormozgan province on Iran’s Gulf coast, told state TV.

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UN calls on UAE to release British man imprisoned in Dubai since 2008

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UN working group rules that Ryan Cornelius has been held arbitrarily and subjected to rights violations

UN officials have called on the United Arab Emirates to immediately release a British businessman who has been detained in the country since 2008.

The UN’s working group on arbitrary detention has ruled that Ryan Cornelius has been held arbitrarily in the UAE since 2008 when he was arrested at Dubai airport. He has contracted tuberculosis while in detention.

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Blacklist Dubai over failure to crack down on Russian oligarchs, say campaigners

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UAE has become haven for superyachts, private jets and ‘dirty money’ since invasion of Ukraine, but has taken no action

Campaigners and politicians are calling for the United Arab Emirates to be blacklisted over its failures to combat the flow of “dirty money” and to enforce sanctions imposed on Russian oligarchs.

The Gulf state has emerged as a key refuge for the Russian super-rich fleeing the impact of global sanctions, with private jets and superyachts linked to oligarchs heading to the UAE after the invasion of Ukraine.

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South Africa seeking to extradite Gupta brothers after arrest in Dubai

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Police begin process to transport Indian-born pair wanted on criminal and money-laundering charges

Police in Dubai are coordinating with their South African counterparts to secure the extradition of two wealthy Indian-born brothers wanted by South African authorities on criminal and money-laundering charges who were arrested in the emirate on Monday.

Atul and Rajesh Gupta are accused of paying bribes in exchange for lucrative state contracts and influence over ministerial appointments during the chaotic nine-year presidency of Jacob Zuma, which ended amid allegations of systematic corruption in 2018. The brothers fled to Dubai shortly after Zuma’s fall from power.

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Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan becomes UAE president

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Speed of transition, one day after death of Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, appears designed to show unity

Rulers in the United Arab Emirates have unanimously appointed Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan as the president of the hereditarily ruled nation on the Arabian peninsula.

The state-run WAM news agency said the rulers of the country’s seven sheikhdoms made the decision at a meeting held in Al Mushrif Palace in Abu Dhabi.

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UAE ruler Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan dies aged 73

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Ministry of presidential affairs announces 40-day mourning period for ruler who succeeded father in 2004

The United Arab Emirates’ long-ailing ruler, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has died aged 73, the government’s state-run news agency has announced

Khalifa, the president of the UAE, oversaw much of the country’s blistering economic growth and his name was immortalised on the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, after bailing out debt-crippled Dubai during its financial crisis more than a decade ago.

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