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On 20 April, Sheikh Sultan Bin Kayed Al Qasimi, a member of Ras Al Khaimah’s ruling family and chairman of the Islamist group Al Islah, was arrested by plain-clothed security officers. It is still not clear who ordered his arrest or continuing detention at the palace of his first cousin, Ras Al Khaimah ruler Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi.
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Dana Gas, the UAE’s Crescent Petroleum affiliate, may be forced to restructure its debt due to late payments related to its Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) region natural gas project – a problem compounded by receivables issues in Egypt. The Pearl Petroleum consortium, of which Dana is a core member, is delivering gas from the Khor Mor field to power stations at Erbil and Sulaymaniyah.
The Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline – which strategically bypasses the Strait of Hormuz – is completed and expected to be operational by August (GSN 916/11).
Iran’s provocative visit has reignited the dispute over Abu Musa. The UAE quickly withdrew its ambassador from Tehran and is likely to toughen its stance, while for Iran, the furore is a welcome distraction from problems at home
Mubadala Development Company (MDC) subsidiary Mubadala Aerospace and Boeing announced on 17 April that they had signed a 10-year contract for Strata Manufacturing, Mubadala Aerospace’s advanced composite aerostructures facility in Al Ain, to build ribs for the tail section of the 777 mini-jumbo and the vertical part of the tail of the 787 Dreamliner.
AHMED AL FAHD: Olympic position; SHEIKH SULTAN AL QASIMI: Book Launch
Deputy prime minister Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan remains on the ascendancy. Also minister of presidential affairs, he is close to half-brother UAE President Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, and is married to Sheikha Manal Bint Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the eldest child of UAE vice president, prime minister and ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum.
The announcement of a $1bn Real Madrid resort on Ras al-Khaimah’s (RAK) first manmade island has been touted in the local press as evidence of the return of the UAE’s prestigious mega-projects after several years of uncertainty. But with funding not yet secured, analysts are viewing the development with a degree of scepticism.
Palestinian entrepreneurs are trying to harness investment from the large diaspora resident in the Gulf. Gulf markets are also a lure for exports, but tough customs constraints make it difficult to make money from tangible goods
The UAE has told two western government-funded pro-democracy organisations to leave the country, citing licensing issues. The US State Department-funded National Democratic Institute (NDI) and Germany’s Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), also targeted in a recent crackdown in Egypt, were given three months to go, KAS said. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have criticised the move.
It has been two years since the Gulf Monetary Council (GMC) – central to the plan for a Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) monetary union – was established on 27 March 2010, and well over a decade since the project to introduce a Gulf common currency began. In recent months, a few small steps have been taken by the four Gulf states still on board: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain. But global economic woes, regional political uncertainties and fundamental questions about the plan’s economic viability leave the prospects of Gulf monetary integration remote.
Plenty of financial issues remain to be resolved, and analysts observe that Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (MBR) is still less prominent on the world stage than he was before becoming UAE premier in 2006. But something of the old strut is returning to Dubai.
Reporters Without Borders has labelled Iran, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia ‘Internet Enemies’ due to their increasingly sophisticated methods of muting online dissent; crackdowns in the UAE have also made it a country to watch
For many western observers, the role of UAE and Qatari special forces in Libya was an eye-opener. Both countries acted on their deep-seated grudges against the Qadhafi regime and used their fledgling military capabilities to great effect.
