Search results

Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahayan is in Washington DC for meetings with senior US officials. Accompanying him in talks with President Barack Obama is UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahayan.

Various princes have begun returning to Saudi Arabia at the conclusion of their summer holidays, including several who had been staying in Morocco with Crown Prince Sultan.

Still convalescing in Morocco, Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdelaziz has had visits at his Agadir palace from Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Sheikh Tahnoun Bin Zayed Al-Nahayan, in his capacity as head of the Tourism Development and Investment Company, has been in London to sign an MoU with the Prince of Wales’ School of Traditional Arts.

Emir Sheikh Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah held talks with President Barack Obama in the White House on 4 August

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s inauguration marked an inauspicious beginning of his second term in office, as political divisions within the ruling elite continued to deepen, to the extent that forming a new cabinet could prove difficult for the embattled head of government. Until 12 June apparently the master of his political arena, Ahmadinejad now seems unable to do anything right – as was underlined last month when he caused outrage among conservative ranks by appointing Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie as first vice president, a nepotistic move which further diminished his already damaged authority.

Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al-Saeed’s three-day official visit to Iran has cemented decades of steady relations between the troubled Islamic Republic and Oman, for long seen as a moderate and sensible state whose good offices are valued by international partners. The visit, the Sultan’s first since Shah Reza Pahlavi’s fall in 1979, has highlighted the importance that Muscat attributes to maintaining steady relations with its large and powerful neighbour.

Timothy Geithner’s first visit to Saudi Arabia and the UAE since becoming US Treasury Secretary highlighted again the important role Gulf Co-operation Council governments play in the global economy, and the fact that the strategic alliances between the United States and GCC polities have been central to maintaining the regional status quo. Not only are all the GCC economies, except for Kuwait, pegged to the dollar, but they are also the largest foreign investors in US stocks.

As Riyadh’s new envoy Abdullah Al-Eifa prepares to take up his post in Damascus, President Bashar Al-Assad is enjoying the diplomatic payback for a sustained period of good behaviour over the past two years. The timing of the return of both the US and Saudi ambassadors, after four- and one-year hiatuses respectively, is no coincidence – foreign partners are once more seriously courting Syria. Riyadh and Damascus have decided to close a troubled chapter in Syria’s relations with the wider Arab world after Assad’s regime demonstrated good faith in its conduct during the Lebanese parliamentary elections of 7 June, which saw its proxies lose to the Saudi/US-backed 14 March coalition led by Saad Hariri.

Unconfirmed reports have suggested that Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saqr Al-Qasimi has purchased a majority stake in an English Premier League club

Published in June 2009, this map provides an overview of global Islamic finance markets. Charts and graphics include Sharia-compliant financial assets by country (Dec 2007), Takaful operators by country (2008), Leading Islamic banks by asset values (Dec 2007), and Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) inter-regional trade

It is a question often asked, the frequent subject of private conversations and regional chat show debates: how Islamic is Islamic finance?

Russia and Oman have signed an agreement on nuclear energy co-operation

Two years into his presidency, Nicolas Sarkozy is starting to reap the rewards of an election night promise to place the Middle East among the key priorities of French foreign policy. Arab governments now see Paris as a key point of contact and leverage, a useful counterpoint to their traditionally close relations with Washington, and a strategic ally in propping up the peace process and countering the strategic challenge posed by Iran.

Al-Ghanim & Sons has signed a MoU with Russian state-owned power trader Inter Rao and VTB Bank to invest up to