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Issue 1060 - 25 May 2018

UAE: Rulers’ Ramadan pardons

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Well over 2,000 prisoners were released early from the UAE’s prisons, as rulers of the seven emirates indulged in their traditional habit of issuing pardons to mark the start of Ramadan. The largest batch – 935-strong – were released on the orders of President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Issue 1060 - 25 May 2018

New MD for Nardello Dubai

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Nardello & Company has appointed Stephen Crowe as managing director, leading the US corporate investigations company’s forensic and investigative services for clients based in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region. Also head of Nardello’s Dubai office, Crowe was recruited from Riyadh, where he was executive director in Ernst & Young’s Fraud Investigation and Disputes Services business. Before that, he was a director with Deloitte Forensic in Dubai and, in an earlier role, general manager of Australia’s National Open Source Intelligence Centre.

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Malaysia’s newly-elected prime minister, the veteran Mahathir Mohamad, has wasted little time in setting up a new taskforce to probe alleged crimes at the scandal-hit 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), amid allegations that defeated prime minister Najib Razak misappropriated large amounts from the sovereign wealth fund. Abu Dhabi – whose now-defunct International Petroleum Investment Company (Ipic) once worked closely with 1MDB – may be forced to revisit an issue it hoped had gone away.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Issue 1060 - 25 May 2018

Kuwait resolves Philippines dispute

Free

A high-profile disagreement over the treatment of Filipino workers in Kuwait appears to have been settled, with the signing of an agreement by the two governments on 11 May. The deal, signed by foreign affairs minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and his Filipino counterpart Alan Cayetano, sets out a series of conditions designed to protect workers’ rights. In the following days, the Philippines lifted a ban it had imposed on domestic workers going to Kuwait.

Kuwait
Issue 1060 - 25 May 2018

Iran: Total signals withdrawal

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French oil major Total has signalled it may withdraw from Phase 11 of the South Pars offshore natural gas field. In a statement issued on 16 May the firm said that, in light of the impending US sanctions, it will have to unwind its operations in Iran before 4 November unless it is granted a specific project waiver by the US authorities, which would give it protection from any sanctions.

Iran
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KDP takes election win: The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) was the best performing group in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) during the 12 May general election, taking 25 seats, the same as in the previous poll in 2014. The rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) returned with 18 seats, three fewer than last time. The Change Movement (Gorran) had been hoping to make up ground on the region’s two main parties, following the calamitous independence referendum in September last year, but in fact it went backwards, winning just five seats compared to nine in 2014.

Iraq
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Contradictory signals from Saudi Arabia are raising concerns that the reform process championed by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) may not have much depth in reality. On the one hand, the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Haia)’s mutawa religious police have had their powers of arrest taken away and have all but disappeared from the streets, while the kingdom is looking forward to the advent of women being allowed to drive, which is due to take effect from 24 June.

Saudi Arabia
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The Public Prosecution Office has vowed to take “all relevant legal measures” against anyone who helps to organise tribal meetings and gatherings in Oman, or who promotes such events on social media, in what looks to be the latest sign of a clampdown on the sultanate’s (already heavily circumscribed) political arena.

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The Public Prosecution Office has vowed to take “all relevant legal measures” against anyone who helps to organise tribal meetings and gatherings in Oman, or who promotes such events on social media, in what looks to be the latest sign of a clampdown on the sultanate’s (already heavily circumscribed) political arena. Multiple sources have told GSN that the statement, issued on 7 May, is related to an early May meeting of the Al-Hakli (also known as Al-Qara) tribal confederation in Dhofar – scene of a long-running guerrilla war in the 1960s and 70s.

Oman
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UK-based Pergas International Consortium – a collection of 13 companies from Asia, Australia, Europe and North America focused on developing oil and gas projects in the Middle East – signed a heads of agreement with the National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC) for the development of the Keranj oil field in Khuzestan province. The deal is the first oil and gas deal in Iran by an international company since the US announced it would pull out of the nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on the Islamic Republic, including on its hydrocarbons industry.

Iran
Issue 1060 - 25 May 2018

New Libyan naval patrol vessel

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UAE links to the eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar have again been on display, with the commissioning of a new flagship for the LNA’s navy. The LNA General Command released a video showing the Al-Karama (Dignity) vessel arriving in Benghazi port on 17 May, where it was received by chief of staff of the LNA’s naval forces Major General Faraj Mahdawi, director of its Armed Forces Procurement Department Major General Abdullah Aoun and others.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)
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The impact of President Donald Trump’s decision to exit the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) continues to be felt, with the split between the United States and Europe as wide as ever and the main protagonists issuing competing (and equally unrealistic) demands. Secretary of state Mike Pompeo set out Washington’s ‘plan B’ in a speech on 21 May, in which he listed 12 conditions before the United States would change course, including a halt to Iran’s ballistic missile build-up and an end to support for Lebanon’s Hizbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and others.

Iran
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Muscat has signed separate memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with Shell and Total to develop recent natural gas discoveries in the Greater Barik area of Block 6 in central Oman, close to BP’s Khazzan tight gas field which was brought onstream in September. The proposed development is expected to produce an initial 500mcf/d, potentially rising to 1bcf/d in time.

Oman
Free

Federal Vice President, prime minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum announced on Twitter on 20 May that the UAE cabinet had voted to lift foreign ownership restrictions on businesses. It is also to introduce a ten-year visa for some groups, including investors, scientists, doctors, engineers and entrepreneurs. The decisions are due to be enforced by Q3 2018. The changes are expected to stimulate investment. Dubai-based Emirates NBD says that some of the Dh164bn ($44.7bn) that expats remit home is now likely to be invested locally.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Free

The National Assembly voted on 13 May to defer plans to introduce a value-added tax until 2021, three years after the implementation date originally agreed by all six Gulf Co-operation Council members. To date only Saudi Arabia and the UAE have brought in the 5% levy on goods and services. However, the National Assembly is still expected to push ahead with the introduction of excise duty to be paid by Kuwaitis on tobacco products and sugary drinks later this year.

Kuwait