Search results

The UAE has set its sights on carving out a leading international role in artificial intelligence, with national security advisor Sheikh Tahnoun Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Khaled Bin Mohammed vying for national AI leadership – but the pursuit of the powerful technology is also causing friction with the US

Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani’s government is looking for a new international partner to take on Shell’s 49% stake in the 1.8m t/yr Nebras petrochemicals project in Basra province, after the European major pulled out of the much-delayed scheme

As predicted for some months, the UAE has been removed from the list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring maintained by the Financial Action Task Force, even though some claim little has really changed.

Sheikh Khalifa Bin Abdulla Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa has been named as Bahrain’s ambassador to Amman, in the latest refresh of heads of missions.

Khalid Bin Salman has been named chairman of the fast-growing state defence industry conglomerate in a reshuffle that reduced the size of Saudi Arabian Military Industries’ board to eight, while bringing in three new well-connected directors

Luxembourg-based real estate fund Meigerhorn II Etoy has filed a winding-up petition in the Cayman Islands against GEMS Global Schools, part of Dubai’s GEMS Education, over unpaid rent at a now-closed Swiss school.

The Abu Dhabi government’s ADQ wealth fund and Tahnoun Bin Zayed’s International Holding Company have sold key real estate assets to Q Holding, in return for shares in the listed real estate group, in a complex deal that further signals the increasing co-operation between Abu Dhabi’s many state and privately-owned funds.

Revised March 2024, this graphic illustrates the connections and relationships across key areas of Iranian politics and business. Centred around Rahbar (Supreme Leader) Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the chart shows the extent to which officials with an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC or Pasdaran) background occupy key positions across the Islamic Republic. The chart covers politics, judicial appointments, key security institutions and personnel, clerics and religious bodies and bonyads (wealthy economic foundations). Names of key individuals link through to Key Player profiles, with supporting articles from the extensive GSN archive.  

In a $66.5m deal with Houston-headquartered Vaalco Energy, Saudi-Ethiopian businessman Mohammed Hussein Ali Al-Amoudi is selling Svenska Petroleum Exploration, his Sweden-based oil company that has been up for sale since bankruptcy proceedings were launched against Al-Amoudi’s Petroswede in early 2023

They may not be popular, but clerics dominate contemporary Iran, its politics and economy to an extent that most Iranians might have thought inconceivable in the years immediately after the 1979 revolution. The latest series of GSN profiles focuses on senior clerics who occupy key positions across Iran’s political system – all of them closely tied to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and committed to the Islamic republic’s long-term survival.

Regional elections are expected, with further delays: A polling day for the long-delayed sixth set of elections to the Kurdistan Parliament has yet to be announced. In August 2023, Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) President Nechirvan Barzani issued a decree scheduling the elections for 25 February.

Revised February 2024, this map illustrates Iraqi and Iraqi Kurdistan's oil and gas infrastructure. The locations of onshore and offshore oil and gas fields and pipelines, along with the owning companies of each, are marked with associated infrastructure which includes oil refineries, gas processing plants, tanker terminals and LNG facilities. The map is available as a PDF file using eps graphics, meaning that there is no loss of resolution as the file is enlarged.

The Independent ran a series of interviews with Al-Saud family members in late February in an advertorial campaign to promote the $20m Saudi Cup horse race. GSN asks who was talking up the event and the background to the British newspaper’s partial Saudi ownership.

Sultan Haitham left Muscat for the UK on 8 February, with no indication of how long he might be away for.

Sheikh Salman Bin Abdullah Al-Khalifa has been appointed vice chairman of the Higher Urban Planning Committee, moving on from his previous role as president of the Survey and Land Registration Bureau.