Search results

Only BP and Chinese partner CNPC were prepared to go ahead with Hussein Shahristani licensing round terms. Mission accomplished for the harassed oil minister, if not for his IOC suitors.

Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani began a three-day trip to Russia on 17 January – his first visit to the country. He had meetings with President Vladimir Putin, State Duma chairman Sergey Naryshkin, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov and Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) chief executive Kirill Dmitriev (who has made building relations with Qatar and other Gulf sovereign wealth funds a priority since RDIF’s establishment in 2011).

Saudi Arabia has come under domestic and international pressure to release Manal Al-Sharif, a female activist and leading member of the ongoing ‘women2drive’ campaign. Al-Sharif was arrested on 21 May after driving her car in Eastern Province, but was released a few hours later.

Allegiance Commission chairman Prince Mishaal Bin Abdelaziz left Riyadh for a trip abroad in February. He was seen off at the airport by his son Sultan. Prince Mishaal often travels abroad for medical treatment, and returned from an extended trip only in mid-October.

The inaugural summit between the European Union and the League of Arab States, held in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh over two days in late February, provided few surprises, amid a distinctly mixed approach to the event by Gulf governments – while some countries’ delegations were led by heads of states, others were fronted by more lowly diplomats. Among the first group were King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa of Bahrain, President Barham Salih of Iraq, Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait, King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia and President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi of Yemen.

Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Al-Thani has asked the Public Prosecution to investigate allegations made by British newspaper The Guardian about the mistreatment of Nepalese workers in Doha. Attorney-general Dr Ali Bin Fetais Al-Marri told the Al Jazeera programme Fi’l-Umq (In Depth) that the government wanted to know if the allegations were true; if investigations show them to be false, legal action will be taken against the newspaper. According to The Peninsula newspaper, Al-Marri said that, in more than 3,000 court cases filed by workers in Qatar, rulings were made against the employers.

IDB/OECD back Yemen redevelopment: The war is far from over, but the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has launched a project with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to rebuild institutional capacity at the national and local level in post-conflict Yemen. The scheme is being supported with funding from the G7’s Deauville Partnership MENA Transition Fund and is being run in co-ordination with the Yemeni Ministry of Planning and International Co-operation.

Pro-Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces seized a shipment of YR64bn ($256m)-worth of newly printed bank notes en route to the Central Bank of Yemen (CBY) in Aden on 13 June, threatening a new currency crisis. While some media outlets called it a ‘bank heist’, the secessionist’s Supreme Economic Committee (SEC) claimed the move was aimed at curbing corruption and funding for terrorist elements. The SEC said the new bills were printed without sufficient deposits to prevent a collapse of the Yemeni rial.

King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa arrived in Islamabad on 18 March for an official state visit, the first trip there by a Bahraini leader in four decades. The king was welcomed at Nur Khan Airbase by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Pakistani Army chief General Raheel Sharif; by way of welcome, 21 rounds of artillery were fired, the national anthems of both countries were played, and the king reviewed a guard of honour. Six co-operation agreements were signed during his visit, on establishing a joint ministerial commission for bilateral co-operation; on protecting investments; on air services; on co-operation between interior ministries; on food security; and in the fields of power and water.

Saudi Royal Air Force Tornado aircraft arrived at Konya air base in Turkey on 24 May to participate in the Anatolian Eagle exercise. Chief of General Staff Lieutenant General Abdelrahman Bin Saleh Al-Bunyan followed on 28 May, when he met Saudi units at Incirlik Air Base. He was met by Saudi military attaché to Turkey commodore pilot Khaled Bin Hussein Al-Assaf. London-based daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported that the 20-day exercise will also involve Qatari forces.

The co-director of the Gulf Center for Human Rights (GCHR) Maryam Al-Khawaja was arrested on 29 August as she tried to enter Bahrain. Khawaja, a leading human rights activist who has dual Danish-Bahraini nationality, says she was trying to visit her father, Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, who is in prison as a result of his own activism and dangerously weak as a result of his hunger strike.Maryam Al-Khawaja arrived in Bahrain, travelling on her Danish passport, at around 1am, and was apprehended just outside the airplane.

Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah travelled to Cairo for a two-day visit starting on 20 October, to discuss bilateral, regional and international issues in what he said on arrival are “these trying times”. He said Egypt had always been “near and dear to the hearts of Kuwaitis”. He held talks with his counterpart Mostafa Madbouly and President Abdel-Fatah El Sisi, delivering a handwritten message from Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah – one of a number sent by the emir to countries involved in the Qatar dispute.

Qatar Airways has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Gulfstream Aerospace Corp to buy up to 20 planes for its Qatar Executive charter service, the companies said on 14 October. The purchases will more than double Qatar Executive’s fleet of eight planes, even if they replace them. “In order to keep pace with the future strategic growth plans of our private jet division, the fleet is being expanded with aircraft that meet the needs of our guests, providing a wide range of options,” Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al-Baker said in a statement.

Saudi Aramco has been setting a fast deal-making pace in recent weeks, as the state oil giant continues to make preparations for its controversial stock market listing.On 20 May, Saudi Aramco announced up to $30bn of investment into Motiva Enterprises, the US refinery operation in Port Arthur, Texas which it recently acquired full control of. The investment includes $12bn now and up to $18bn more by 2023.

The Islamic banking and finance industry has a long history in the Gulf states. When Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) opened for business in 1976, it became the first Islamic retail bank in the world. Since then, the Gulf has been a key player in an industry that has grown dramatically in the last decade, with an asset base that has doubled in the five years to 2014, when it stood at nearly $2tr, 60% of which is located in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) region.