July 19th, 20220SAUDI ARABIA — President Biden's visit in recent days to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia ended without any announcements that the kingdom would raise oil production to help lower fuel prices which are spurring the highest U.S. inflation in four decades.
Top U.S. energy envoy Amos Hochstein told a television program on Sunday that...
July 12th, 20220WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. President Biden will make the case for greater oil production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) nations to bring down gasoline prices when he meets Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia this week, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday.
Biden leaves Tuesday...
May 14th, 20220DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates' de facto leader, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan (MbZ), was elected president of the Gulf Arab state by a federal supreme council on Saturday, solidifying his rule over the OPEC oil producer and key regional player.
He becomes president at a time when the UAE's long-standing ties with the...
November 5th, 20210Lebanon is facing its worst rift yet with oil-rich Gulf Arab states, spurred by comments made by Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi before his official appointment about the Saudi-led campaign that has created a severe humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Thursday he had agreed with...
April 13th, 20210DUBAI — A commercial vessel owned by an Israeli firm was attacked off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in Gulf waters, pro-Iran media and an Israeli television channel said on Tuesday.
Israel’s top-rated Channel 12 quoted unnamed Israeli officials as blaming arch-foe Iran for the assault, which it described as a missile...
February 12th, 20210DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates’ first mission to Mars reached the red planet and entered orbit on Tuesday after a seven-month, 494 million-km (307 million-mile) journey, allowing it to start sending data about the Martian atmosphere and climate.
The Mars program is part of the UAE’s efforts to develop its scientific and...
February 6th, 20210The Pakistani government should never, under any circumstances and no matter the pressure, normalize with Israel. Doing so is not only dangerous — as it will embolden an already vile, racist, violent apartheid Israel — but it would also be considered a betrayal of a historic legacy of mutual solidarity, collective affinity and...
November 28th, 20200DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates has stopped issuing new visas to citizens of 13 mostly Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to a document issued by a state-owned business park.
A source briefed on the matter told Reuters the visas had temporarily stopped being issued to Afghans,...
August 21st, 20200DUBAI - While the United Arab Emirates struggles to regain its economic footing during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dubai has once again loosened its alcohol consumption laws.
Previously in Dubai, non-Muslim residents were required to carry plastic red cards issued by police in order to purchase alcohol. Otherwise they’d face action from...
August 13th, 20200
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Israel and the United Arab Emirates reached a "historic" deal on Thursday that will lead to a full normalization of diplomatic relations between the two nations in an agreement that President Trump helped broker.
Under the agreement, Israel has agreed to suspend applying sovereignty to areas of the West...
December 7th, 20180VATICAN CITY — The first visit by a pope to the Arabian peninsula will take place in February when Pope Francis travels to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, the Vatican said on Thursday.
The Feb. 3-5 trip, Francis’ latest to a predominantly Muslim nation, will be centered around the theme of inter-religious peace.
The...
September 16th, 20180SANAA — In the malnutrition ward of a hospital in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, doctors weigh toddlers with protruding rib cages and skeletal limbs.
Twenty children, most under the age of 2, being treated at the ward in Sab’een Hospital are among hundreds of thousands of children suffering from severe malnutrition in the impoverished...
June 26th, 20180Hundreds of Yemeni prisoners have been sexually abused at a jail in southern Yemen believed to be run by the United Arab Emirates, according to several witnesses.
Fifteen officers who arrived at Beir Ahmed prison in Aden hid their faces behind their headdresses, but their accents were clearly identifiable as from the UAE, Associated...
June 25th, 20181Collaboration between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and United Arab Emirates officials started secretly in a Cyprus meeting to discuss the Iran nuclear agreement right before Donald Trump took office as U.S. president, according to a report in The New Yorker.
The Obama administration was not aware of the meeting. U.S....
June 5th, 20180DUBAI — Prominent Emirati activist Ahmed Mansoor has been sentenced to 10 years in jail and fined 1 million AED ($272,000) on charges of criticizing the United Arab Emirates government on social media, The National newspaper reported late on Wednesday.
A trade and tourism hub, the UAE is an absolute monarchy that tolerates little...
May 25th, 20180WEST BANK — Jerusalemite activists have launched a hashtag on Twitter – #we are not hungry – as a rejection of Ramadan meals provided by the UAE for visitors to Al-Aqsa Mosque. They argue that the Gulf State is consorting with the Israeli occupation of Palestine, having sent a team of cyclists to participate in the international...
April 13th, 20180CAIRO – Four Arab states who cut relations with Qatar over its close ties with Iran and Turkey are sticking to an ultimatum they issued the Gulf state last year, Egypt’s MENA news agency said on Thursday, despite U.S. pressure for a swift end to the dispute.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates sent Doha a...
April 6th, 20180WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration is postponing until September a summit with Gulf Arab leaders that had been planned for this spring amid an ongoing dispute between Qatar and other U.S. allies in the region, according to five U.S. officials.
The decision to delay the May summit with the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council...
March 23rd, 20180PARIS — Two rights groups have given the French government two months to halt weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates or face legal action, adding to pressure on President Emmanuel Macron to scale back support of a Riyadh-led offensive in Yemen.
The action comes as some European states, notably Germany, have...
February 16th, 20180UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations Security Council is considering a British proposal to praise Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for pledging nearly $1 billion to ease Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, even as U.N. experts accuse a Saudi-led military coalition of using “the threat of starvation as an instrument of war” in...
