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Three and a half years on from the Al-Ula declaration, which ended the 2017-21 regional boycott of Doha, the number of Saudi visitors to Qatar continues to rise, while Qatar Airways is increasing its services to the kingdom.
The plunging value of the Egyptian pound over the past few years has made deals significantly more attractive to Gulf investors. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s regime needs the financial support as much as ever.
An eight-bedroom mansion bought for Prince Khalid Bin Salman in 2017 for $12m has been sold after five years on the market. Over that time the asking price for the Washington-area property has been cut from $14m to $11.8m.
Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Energy and Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Company (Kufpec) were awarded further licences in September, adding to their existing portfolios in Indonesia, where both have recently made natural gas discoveries.
Qatar is to become the first Arab country in the US Visa Waiver Programme from December, while the UAE has signed up to the US Global Entry Programme.
Dubai Crown Prince and federal defence minister Sheikh Hamdan witnessed the signing of several agreements during his two-day trip to Tashkent.
UAE state-owned defence group Edge is to set up a manufacturing and training facility in conjunction with Brazilian firm Condor Non-Lethal Technologies, which it bought a majority stake in earlier in the year.
Bilarab Bin Haitham Al-Said, younger son of the sultan, visited the Omantel Innovation Labs in September to be briefed about its programmes and meet some of the start-ups its supports.
Bapco Energies has sold a minority stake in the pipeline that brings Saudi crude to the Bahrain Refinery and, in a separate deal, bought out its minority partners to take full control of Bapco Gas.
King Salman Bin Abdulaziz issued a royal order on 19 September approving the by-laws of the King Salman Foundation, a non-profit body focusing on cultural issues.
Crown Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa has made a number of changes to the EDB’s board of directors, bringing in his son and Labour Fund chief Sheikh Isa Bin Salman while letting the king’s economic advisor Hassan Fakhro go.
The consequences of the UAE’s involvement in Sudan’s civil war – where Abu Dhabi has been identified as a key supporter of Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti)’s Rapid Support Forces militia – appears to be increasing, with four of its servicemen alleged to have been killed in South Darfur and the Emirati ambassador’s residence in Khartoum coming under attack.
Some 100 political detainees are thought to be among the 340 inmates released from Jau Prison on 23 September, in what is the third major wave of prisoner releases this year.
Former premier Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Sabah died in mid-September at the age of 82, a year after being convicted in the Army Fund corruption case.
Oman was lifted out of junk status by Standard & Poor’s (S&P) on 27 September, when the credit ratings agency upgraded the country’s sovereign debt from BBB- to BB+.
