As the clean energy transition takes off, the region’s biggest players are making sure they have a seat at the table. Oil may be the lifeblood of many Middle Eastern economies, but some of the region’s biggest players are now setting their sights on another booming energy sector: critical minerals. Minerals such as lithium, cobalt,...
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the European Union (EU) has pursued policies aimed at shifting its energy sources away from Russia. This has resulted in a decline in the bloc’s dependence on Russian energy. Meanwhile, Russia has focused on exporting oil and natural gas to regions outside the EU to maintain...
A humanitarian and human rights catastrophe is unfolding in Sudan. With nearly 11 million people already displaced—three million of them children—the country is now home to the most people rendered homeless by conflict worldwide, and its populace sits poised on the brink of a major famine. A collapsing medical system renders the war’s true death...
While so much attention is focused on Israel’s war in Gaza and its shockwaves across the Middle East, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government is steadily reintegrating into the Arab world, despite still being shunned by the West as a pariah. Since Syria made its full-fledged return to the Arab League in May 2023, when Assad...
BP has struck a deal with the UAE’s state-owned oil company as the British energy giant deepens ties to the Middle East. BP is to form a joint venture with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) focused on production from two massive Egyptian gas fields. Under the deal, BP will transfer interests in three...
Sheikh Mohamed phones ‘dear friend’ Russian president to discuss war in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East. Vladimir Putin and the president of the United Arab Emirates vowed to further develop their“friendly relations” after discussing the war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas conflict in a phone call. Putin, who is subject to an international...
The mass trial underway of 84 Emiratis, including prominent human rights defenders, flagrantly violates the defendants’ fair trial rightsand disregards fundamental legal principle by re-trying some defendants for the same charges they were convicted of a decade ago, Amnesty International said ahead of a hearing in the case on 7 February. At least 65 of...
The United Arab Emirates has dispatched an ambassador to Damascus for the first time since the Syrian civil war erupted in 2011, Syria’s state media reported today, in a new signal of Syria’s warming ties with the Arab region, Reuters reports. Incoming Emirati envoy Hassan Al-Shehi presented his credentials to Syria’s Foreign Affair Minister Faysal Al-Meqdad at...
Russian defense exports agency Rosoboronexport has said it wants to establish drone production facilities in the Middle Eastern region, including the UAE, as Moscow attempts to grab market share in a region it deems receptive to the idea. State-owned Russian media agency TASS cited the export agency as saying it would make overtures to regional...
The two countries look like allies—but are increasingly regional competitors. The Israel-Hamas war unfolded amid an apparent regional trend of peaceful coexistence. The Middle East’s transformation along these lines has been represented by the seemingly ever-closer alliance between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as symbolized by the apparent friendship between their respective de...