Search results

General

Type

Sector

Regions

Sort options

1,441 results found for your search

Free

Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani on 11 March signed into law the National Service Act, which will require Qatari males between the ages of 18 and 35 to spend three or four months training with the armed forces. Law number 5 of 2014 outlined harsh penalties for anyone seeking to avoid national service. According to The Peninsula newspaper, citizens dodging conscription will not be eligible for jobs in the government or non-government sector, and will not be able to get a licence to do business, or to register on the jobseekers list.

Qatar
Subscriber

Saudi Arabia has retained its position as the third largest defence spender in the world, according to the latest Military Balance report issued by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in mid-February. Saudi Arabia’s defence spending amounted to $83bn in 2018, according to IISS estimates. That put it behind the United States ($643bn) and China ($168bn), but ahead of Russia ($63bn), India ($58bn) and the UK ($56bn). The only other Gulf country to be included among the 15 largest defence spenders is Iraq, which had an estimated military budget of almost $20bn last year.

Saudi Arabia
Subscriber

The authorities in Bahrain have long sought definitive proof that Iran and its Gulf proxy network, Hizbollah Al-Hejaz, are actively undertaking militant actions inside Bahrain. Based on contacts within Bahrain’s security services, GSN has periodically reported the thin gruel of evidence that has built up over time, largely consisting of 1990s-era arms caches unearthed by new building activity or occasional evidence of Bahrainis travelling to Iran, Lebanon and Iraq to receive training or money from Tehran’s intelligence services.

Iran | Bahrain
Issue 1024 - 21 October 2016

Qatar: Defence chief visits Algeria

Free

Qatari Armed Forces chief of staff Major General (Pilot) Ghanem Bin Shaheen Al-Ghanem held talks with his Algerian counterpart Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaïd Salah during a visit to Algiers on 10 October. The two discussed “the state of the bilateral military co-operation and ways to extend it to other fields of mutually beneficial interest for the two countries,” according to the official Algérie Presse Service.

Qatar
Subscriber

On 8 July, Houthi tribal fighters in Yemen overran the provincial capital of Amran, seizing the headquarters of the 310th Armoured Brigade, and installing themselves in the city. More than 200 people were killed in the fighting, and many more wounded. Tens of thousands of citizens fled the fighting, seeking refuge in other parts of the province, or moving towards Sanaa, just 50km away.

Yemen
Subscriber

An application to summon Attorney General Ali Bin Fadhul Al-Buainain to a court hearing in Dublin, on claims that he was involved with the torture of a political activist, have been rejected by the court. Judge Gráinne O’Neill said she didn’t believe a sufficient link had been shown between the alleged toture and Al-Buainain, who was thought to be in Dublin for a meeting of the International Association of Prosecutors, according to The Irish Times.

Bahrain
Issue 967 - 08 April 2014

Kuwait: MP’s brother dies in Syria

Subscriber

As Saudi Arabia turns its attention increasingly to citizens fighting in Syria and other conflicts abroad, Kuwaiti newspapers have reported that Jazaa Al-Shemmari, the brother of MP Sultan Al-Shemmari, was killed while fighting for the Al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat Al-Nusra. According to the Kuwait Times, Jazaa Al-Shemmari had left for Syria eight days before being killed in a battle in Yabroud on 21 March. The Syrian government said it recaptured Yabroud, a strategic town close to the border with Lebanon, on 16 March; according to a report in the Financial Times, rebels had been weakened by a powerplay between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, each of whom was backing rival groups.

Kuwait
Subscriber

Bahrain criticises Rafale fighter. US-Iraq $100m arms deal

Bahrain | Iraq
Subscriber

A UK pressure group has won the right to launch a legal challenge to the British government’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia. The Court of Appeal in London ruled on 4 May that the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) can mount an appeal challenging a July 2017 decision by the High Court over the legality of the government’s policy. The High Court had ruled in the government’s favour against CAAT.

Saudi Arabia
Issue 983 - 11 December 2014

Bahrain: Defence deal with UK

Subscriber

The UK and Bahrain have signed a defence deal which will see Manama pay for a major expansion of Britain’s naval facilities in the Gulf. The base is expected to cost around £15m ($23.5m), and has been widely billed as the first permanent British base in the region since 1971, when Britain withdrew all forces east of Suez. “The facilities that we have used in Mina Al-Salman have been fairly poor, temporary facilities,” UK foreign secretary Philip Hammond – who signed the agreement on the sidelines of the International Institute for Security Studies’ Manama Dialogue along with Bahrain’s foreign minister Sheikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Bin Mohammed Al-Khalifa – told the BBC.

Bahrain
Issue 1069 - 15 November 2018

UAE: Somaliland base to open next year

Subscriber

The UAE’s controversial military base in Berbera in the self-declared republic of Somaliland will be up and running by June 2019, Bloomberg reported, citing former Somaliland ambassador to the UAE Bashe Awil Omar. The base – which has attracted criticism by opposition politicians in Somaliland – will include a coastal surveillance system able to monitor the territory’s 800km coastline, as well as a naval base and two parallel runways.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)
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)
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
Subscriber

Spain’s Navantia is looking to further build its order book with the sale of frigates to Australia and Saudi Arabia. This follow the state-owned shipbuilder’s biggest ever loss, of E167m ($189m), in 2015. This was despite a 26% rise in sales, and reflected efforts to balance its books by end-2017. Lack of activity at Navantia’s shipyards was responsible for more than half of loss; also weighing heavy were pressures on cash flow. The likely sale to the Royal Saudi Naval Forces would be for the supply of five Avante 2200 corvettes.

Saudi Arabia
Subscriber

Doubts have been cast over the $110bn-worth of arms deals announced during President Donald Trump’s visit to Riyadh in May. One well-placed Washington commentator labelled it “fake news”. In an article on 5 June, Washington-based Brookings Institution senior fellow Bruce Riedel wrote: “I’ve spoken to contacts in the defence business and on [Capitol] Hill, and all of them say the same thing: There is no $110 billion deal. Instead, there are a bunch of letters of interest or intent, but not contracts.” The White House has struggled to counter the allegations.

Saudi Arabia