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Issue 1037 - 26 May 2017

UAE: Yemen military training

Free

The UAE Armed Forces on 15 May held what was described as an “intensive military training course” for recruits on the Yemeni island of Socotra. The recruits were given training in field and battle skills, the use of various weapons including live firing exercises, internal security and first aid. They will be used to guard the coastal areas of the island, famed for its native dragon blood tree.

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

Kuwait resolves Philippines dispute

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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 953 - 13 August 2013

Kuwait government list

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GSN’s listing of the 33rd Kuwait cabinet, announced 4 August 2013.

Kuwait
Issue 1007 - 07 January 2016

Father Emir: Ski resort injury

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Former Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani (r. 1995-2013) broke his leg while on holiday in Morocco in late December and was flown to Switzerland for treatment. Sheikh Hamad was understood to be staying at a resort in the Atlas mountains when the accident happened. In late December, Sheikh Tamim was seen on holiday in Morocco’s Ifrane ski resort. Several of his family flew in to visit him in hospital, including son Sheikh Joaa, with some eight planes belonging to Qatar making unscheduled landings at Zurich (Kloten) airport. Earlier in the month, Sheikh Hamad attended National Day celebrations in Doha.

Qatar
Free

While the Dubai PR machine seeks to persuade the outside world that all is well following the commercial emirate’s debt crisis, the senior Al-Maktoum leadership has looked to itself to take a leading role in dragging injured financial institutions back to health. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum (MBR) has, in many respects, adopted a conservative response to cleaning up after the debt bubble, which burst in late 2008 and continues to make waves.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Issue 1035 - 28 April 2017

Qatar: Sports figures win reprieves

Free

Saoud Al-Mohannadi has had sanctions imposed on him by football governing body Fifa lifted, following a successful appeal. He was banned from football for a year in November, for failing to cooperate with a Fifa enquiry (GSN 1,023/5). In a separate move, on 13 April, the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) said it had lifted its suspension on the Doping Analysis Laboratory in Doha imposed on 7 November due to “non-conformities”.

Qatar
Free

Often described as an alliance of convenience, the coalition of Zaydi-Shia Houthi rebels and deposed president Ali Abdullah Saleh has entered a new phase that may not bode well for the United Nations-led peace process. Recent setbacks and unrelenting aerial bombardment by the Saudi-led Arab Coalition have strengthened the once unlikely alliance, stiffening the resolve of Houthi and Saleh’s General People’s Congress (GPC) forces. Fighting continues on several fronts – with some seeing wily old operator Major General Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmar as a player in the ‘Resistance’ to his erstwhile ally Saleh.

Yemen
Issue 1048 - 16 November 2017

Mohammed Bin Zayed: Mali defence pact

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Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan witnessed the signing of a defence and anti-terrorism memorandum of understanding with Mali on 14 November, following talks with President of Mali Ibrahim Boubacar Keita at Al-Bahr Palace. The MoU was signed by deputy prime minister and interior minister Lieutenant General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Malian security and civil protection minister Salif Traore.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)
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Pointing to its determination to maintain the pace of its production, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has awarded London Stock Exchange-listed, UAE-based Petrofac a $900m engineering, procurement and construction contract for the Yibal Khuff crude and sour gas development project, due to start producing in 2019. About one-quarter of the contract value is for Petrofac’s services, with the remainder for procurement.

Oman
Issue 1027 - 01 December 2016

Saudi Arabia: Mohammed Bin Salman

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In late November, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) received the Chechan Republic’s controversial president Ramzan Kadyrov. Described by The Guardian newspaper as an “Instagram king…vulgar, vicious and very rich”, Kadyrov often has meetings with Gulf officials; he met MBS twice in July 2015 and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim Al-Thani in January 2016. He also met senior officials in the UAE. A week earlier in Riyadh, MBS met the heads of two defence companies: Thales France chairman and chief executive Patrice Caine and Dassault Aviation head Eric Trappier.

Saudi Arabia
Issue 1051 - 11 January 2018

Kuwait: Army chief survives copter crash

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Chief of staff Lieutenant General Mohammed Al-Khuder survived a crash when the helicopter he was travelling collided with trees while trying to land in dense fog, during an official visit to Bangladesh on 3 January. The crew and the other passengers also survived the incident in Sreemongol, about 160km north-east of the capital Dhaka, with only some “moderate injuries” according to the official Kuwait News Agency (Kuna).

Kuwait
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Amin Nasser was confirmed as president of Saudi Aramco, after the first meeting of the Saudi Aramco Supreme Council on 23 September. The veteran executive had been interim president and chief executive since May, when his predecessor Khalid Al-Falih was named health minister and the company’s new ruling council was spun off from the Ministry of Petroleum (GSN 992/12). Al-Falih remains Aramco chairman. Nasser is a 30 years-plus Aramco veteran, who has served as senior vice-president of upstream operations since 2008. The Supreme Council is chaired by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

Saudi Arabia
Free

Lured by a combination of extraordinary prospectivity and attractive fiscal terms, international oil companies (IOCs) are more and more prepared to discount the political risks of signing production-sharing contracts (PSCs) with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), even though those risks are increasing exponentially with the growing acrimony between Erbil and Baghdad.

Iraq
Issue 962 - 23 January 2014

Bahrain: $1bn criminal conspiracy

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The UK-based law firm Addleshaw Goddard is to represent Saudi property developer Dar Al-Arkan and Bahrain’s Bank Alkhair (previously known as Unicorn Investment Bank) in a $1bn conspiracy case against several defendants: the bank’s former chief executive, the US-born Majid Bader Al-Refai, global risk consulting firm Kroll Associates, Bahrain-based chartered accountant Alex Richardson and business consultancy FTI Consulting. The case will reportedly start in London’s Commercial Court in the autumn. Dar Al-Arkan and Bank Alkhair are both chaired by Saudi businessman Yousef Al-Shelash.

Bahrain
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Saad Hariri’s extended sojourn in Riyadh, widely believed to be at King Salman Bin Abelaziz’s pleasure – or rather willed by his son Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) – has stirred concern far beyond Beirut, and discontent within Lebanese ranks, with deep unease at the way the Saudi passport-holding prime minister is being used a bargaining chip. Hariri’s shock resignation in the Saudi capital on 4 November, claiming an imminent assassination threat faced him back home, is now widely viewed to have been forced.

Saudi Arabia