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Sheikha Latifa Bint Mohammed Al-Maktoum, daughter of Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum (MBR), was the focus of renewed international media attention in mid-February, after the BBC’s investigative Panorama programme broadcast a number of video messages sent secretly to friends in which ‘the princess’ described being detained in a “jail villa” and fearing for her life.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)
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Air Force commander Lieutenant General Shihab Jahid Hama has insisted Iraqi technicians will be able to maintain its F-16 aircraft if and when international contractors finally leave the country. This followed an official US report that indicated local pilots refused to fly the jets when American technicians were absent last year. The National Iraqi News Agency quoted Hama on 13 February as saying “the Iraqi pilots and technicians working on these aircraft are at the top of professionalism… and they are doing their job right now.”

Iraq
Free

Budget talks in Baghdad are going down to the wire over the thorny issue of allocations to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The negotiations are the latest manifestation of a long-running dispute between Iraq’s centre and its periphery that has proved stubbornly immune to resolution since the late Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime was ousted in 2003. There is added friction in the Baghdad-Erbil standoff, with Iraqi Shia parties increasingly vexed at what they view as a resurgence of Kurdish independence hopes.

Iraq
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Judiciary chief Ebrahim Raeisi has emerged as a clear front-runner among potential candidates in the June presidential election, according to an opinion poll carried out in January and February by Iranpoll and the University of Maryland Center for International and Security Studies. When asked in an open question who they would like to be the next president, 28.2% of the Iranians polled named Raeisi, followed by former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (15.1%) and conservative Majlis-e Shura-ye Eslami (parliament) speaker and ex-mayor of Tehran Mohammad Baghar Ghalibaf (6.4%).

Iran
Issue 1121 - 04 March 2021

Global-level defence spending

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London think tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS)’s annual Military Balance shows that Oman retains its position of having the largest defence budget as a percentage of GDP, at 12%, up from 9.9% in 2019. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are in joint fourth place in the IISS rankings of the world’s biggest defence spenders, at 7.1% of GDP each. Iraq, the UAE and Qatar also make the global top 15 on this measure, with 5.8%, 5.6% and 4.4% of their respective GDPs.

Kuwait | Saudi Arabia | Oman | United Arab Emirates (UAE) | Qatar
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Qatar and the UAE used Kuwait’s National Day on 25 February as the moment to name two roads after the late Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, who died in September 2020.

Kuwait | United Arab Emirates (UAE) | Qatar
Free

The National Museum is setting up a new section dedicated to the late Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al-Said, giving an account of his life and featuring a number of items donated by his successor Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq Al-Said.

Oman
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Iran’s ambassador to Iraq Iraj Masjedi sparked a round of diplomatic protests between Iran and Turkey, after telling the Kurdish Rûdaw news agency that Ankara should end its military intervention in Iraq. “Turkish forces should not pose a threat or violate Iraqi soil,” Masjedi said in late February.

Iran | Iraq
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Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan requested budget support from the UAE, either as a grant or a soft loan, during a 19-22 February visit to Abu Dhabi, accompanied by foreign affairs and tourism minister Sylvestre Radegonde. Ramkalawan was last in Abu Dhabi only in December.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Issue 1121 - 04 March 2021

Qatar: South Asian LNG deals line up

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Qatargas Operating Company announced on 28 February it had delivered its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo to the Ennore LNG receiving terminal, in Kamarajar Port, some 40km from Chennai in southern India. The 147,000m3 cargo was delivered by the Al-Nuaman Q-Flex vessel to the 5m t/yr terminal’s operator, Indian Oil Corporation subsidiary Indian Oil LNG Private. In February 2019, Qatargas helped to commission the Ennore terminal by supplying LNG via Swiss-based trader Gunvor.

Qatar
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Fujairah Ruler Sheikh Hamad Bin Mohammed Al-Sharqi has laid claim to a cargo of crude oil seized by the United States, which alleges it came from Iran.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Issue 1122 - 18 March 2021

Iraq: Kurdistan payments improve

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There have been further oil and arrears payments by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to international oil companies (IOCs) in recent days, according to announcements by London-listed Genel Energy, and Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP), and Oslo Stock Exchange-listed DNO ASA. Data for January sales were published by Genel, which said it had received its share of payments for the month from Tawke ($10.9m plus an override payment of $6.5m), Taq Taq ($2.6m) and Sarta ($1.5m), plus a receivable recovery payment of $2.4m for unpaid invoices from 2019-20.

Iraq
Issue 1122 - 19 March 2021

Emir Nawaf’s medical trip to Ukraine

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Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah continues to struggle with poor health after an emergency trip to New York for medical treatment earlier this month. Accompanied by Kuwait’s top gastroenterologist, Dr. Fahad Al-Ibraheem, the ruler was sent for tests related to the long-term impact of his stomach cancer. Sheikh Nawaf has for years struggled with the ailment.  

Kuwait
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Dubai Crown Prince and Dubai Executive Council chairman Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum attended the ceremony for the 21st batch of graduates from the Rashid Bin Saeed Al-Maktoum Naval College in Al-Taweelah, Abu Dhabi on 9 March, posing for a photo with the graduating officers.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)
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The corruption case against former prime minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Sabah, former defence minister Khaled Jarrah Al-Sabah and four other senior officials is set to start on 14 April in the Ministerial Court. The court’s Investigative Committee, which is responsible for prosecuting high-ranked members of the ruling family, has demanded they be punished for mismanagement of government funds at the Ministry of Defence.

Kuwait