Two men from London have become the fifteenth and sixteenth members of a £100m+ money laundering network to be convicted, following a major National Crime Agency investigation into cash smuggling from the UK to the UAE. Guilty verdicts were returned yesterday (11 January) on Ali Al-Nawab, 40, from Golders Green, London, and Mehdi Amrollahbibiyouki, 41,...
United Arab Emirates: UN experts alarmed by new charges brought against civil society in UAE87 trial. UN experts* today expressed grave concern that the trial in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of 84 members of civil society on spurious terrorism charges could result in the death penalty or lengthy prison sentences for acts allegedly committed...
How China is winning the Middle East. China is working to present itself as a responsible alternative to the U.S. in the Middle East, just as many are questioning Washington’s long-term commitment to the region. Amid the recent catastrophes in the Middle East—the renewed Israel-Hamas war; widening violence in Lebanon, Iraq, the Persian Gulf, and...
The UAE Must Stop Sponsoring the RSF Militia in Sudan. The UAE’s support for the RSF militia is a violation of foreign territorial sovereignty, prohibited under international law. In April 2023, war broke out in Sudan between the Sudanese National Army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), killing thousands and displacing millions. As the fighting...
Dubai’s property boom in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic has been one of the fastest in the world, fueled by investor-friendly reforms and a surge in expat demand, particularly from Russia in the wake of the start of Moscow’s full-scale war with Ukraine. Some of Dubai’s luxury developments cater specifically to Russian buyers, with...
‘Purest ice on Earth’ formed over 100,000 years in the Arctic has been shipped in from Greenland. The world’s ‘purest ice’ has arrived in Dubai after an epic journey that saw the 22-tonne crystal-clear cargo sail 20,000km. Harvested from glaciers that formed over 100,000 years in Greenland, the ice was shipped via Denmark in nine...
Since Nov. 2023, tensions between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)—commanded by Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan—and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have risen. On Nov. 27, Lt. Gen. Yasser Al-Atta, the assistant commander-in-chief of the SAF, criticized the UAE for behaving like a “mafia state” in a speech at a military headquarters. Less than two weeks later, authorities in...
Just weeks after COP28, ADNOC’s oil and gas expansion plans “gain momentum”. Just weeks after the COP28 climate talks finished, it is business as usual for the host country, the United Arab Emirates, in expanding its oil and gas production. The climate talks were widely criticised when it was announced that Sultan Al Jaber, the...
The civil war in Sudan that erupted in April 2023 is spreading. With thousands killed and millions displaced, the troubled nation is in danger of further fragmentation. is led by the nation’s actual ruler, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, while the RSF is commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti. The two men joined forces...
Banned broadcaster RT has ramped up its presence in the UAE and other countries neutral over Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine in a propaganda push to rehabilitate Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin-controlled news channel, formerly known as Russia Today, was banned in the UK and EU, and blocked in the US, after the February 2022 invasion. It...